NE.W\'ORK 


"AS 


EWASHINGTONil 
KNEWITAFTEIvTl1t:i 
REV^OLUTION 


 New  York  as  Washington  Knew  It  After  the  Revolution. 

Engraved  illustrations  after  rare  originals  by  S.  L.  Smith.    New  York: 
1905.    8vo,  Japan  boards,  gilt  top,  uncut  45.00 
One  of  135  copies  on  French  hand-made  paper. 


118  ANDREWS,  WILLIAM  LORINQ.  New  York  as  Washington  Knew  It 
after  the  Revolution.  Full-Page  and  vignette  copperplates  engraved  by  Sidney  L. 
Smith.  8vo,  parchment  boards:  top  edge  gilit,  others  uncut.  ONE  OF  135  COPIES. 

New  York,  1905 


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NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON  KNEW  IT 
AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 


HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII^ 


NEW  YORK 


WASHINGTON 

KNEWITAFTEI^THE 
REVOLUTION 


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X 
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Copyright,  1905,  by 
William  Loring  Andrews 


A 

STUDY 
IN  BOOK-MAKING 
IN   PLAIN   BLACK  AND 
WHITE   IN   WHICH  TYPOGRA 
PHY  AND  COPPER- PLATES 
ENGRAVED   BY  HAND 
ARE  THE  ONLY 
AGENCIES 
EMPLOY 
ED 


The  New  York  Daily  Gazette 

"On  Thursday,  about  two  o'clock, 
arrived  in  town,  the  most  illustrious 
George  Washington,  President  of  the 
United  States/' 


April  25th,  1789. 


PREFACE 

E  have  gone  for  the  type  and 
paper  used  in  this  volume  to  a 
country  noted  for  the  good 
taste  and  beautiful  typography 
of  its  fine  book-making  and 
for  the  entire  absence  of  these  qualities  in  its 
newspapers  and  ordinary  publications.  Some 
of  the  finest  examples  of  the  printer's  art  are 
produced  in  France  and  some  of  the  very 
worst. 

The  type  we  have  selected  is  an  American 
re-cutting  of  the  seventeenth  century  Elzevir 
originally  made  by  the  Mayeur  Foundry  of 

xi 


PREFACE 

Paris  in  1878,  and  modelled  after  type  used  by 
the  Elzevirs  of  Leyden  in  1634.  These  types 
have  been  largely  employed  in  this  country  in 
fine  book-printing  since  about  the  year  1889. 
In  1885  a  font  was  specially  imported  for  use 
in  The  Grolier  Club's  edition  of  "  Knickerbock- 
er's History  of  New  York."  The  beauty  and 
perfection  of  this  face  of  type  were  speedily 
recognized,  and  in  1888-9  a  type  foundry  of 
this  city  imported  a  set  of  "  drives  "  from  the 
original  steel  punches,  for  the  making  of  mat- 
rices of  several  of  the  sizes,  and  began  casting 
the  type  which  brought  it  within  easy  reach  of 
American  printers.  The  "drives"  for  the  5-,  7-, 
9-  and  1 1 -point  sizes  were  not,  however,  then 
imported  and  it  was  not  until  1904  that  the 
1 1 -point  type  with  which  this  book  is  printed, 
became  available  by  being  cut  here. 

The  "papier  de  Rives,"  upon  which  most 
of  this  edition  is  printed,  was  selected  for 
its  warm  tone,  and  the  smooth  surface  which 
makes  it  particularly  well  adapted  to  the 
printing  of  the  delicately  executed  illustra- 
tions designed  and  engraved  by  Mr.  Sidney 
L.  Smith,  of  Boston,  Mass. 

In  southeastern  France,  in  the  old  province 
xii 


PREFACE 

of  Dauphine,  on  the  railroad  running  from 
Lyons  to  Grenoble,  there  is  a  town  of  about 
8,000  inhabitants,  which  has  been  noted  for 
centuries  for  the  superior  quality  of  its  manu- 
factures, of  paper  and  steel,  and  there  at  Rives 
sur  Pure,  Department  Isere,  the  paper  for  this 
book  was  manufactured;  the  crystal  purity  of 
the  little  mountain  stream  La  Pure  being  doubt- 
less one  of  the  factors  in  the  production  of  the 
pure  clear  color  that  the  "  Rives "  papers 
possess. 

Por  the  foregoing  interesting  information 
concerning  the  type  and  paper,  1  am  indebted 
to  my  long-time  printer,  Mr.  Walter  Gilliss, 
who  also  points  out  the  coincidence  in  point 
of  time,  between  the  period  in  the  history 
of  our  country  under  consideration,  and  the 
foundation  (1786)  of  the  Rives  paper  mill  by 
the  two  families  whose  descendants  still  con- 
trol and  direct  its  operation. 

The  portrait  of  Washington  which  forms 
our  frontispiece  is  engraved  by  Mr.  Sidney  L. 
Smith,  after  a  life-size  oil  painting  found  in 
Holland  some  twenty  years  ago  by  Mr.  B.  P. 
Stevens,  of  London,  the  well-known  student, 
collector  and  dealer  in  books,  prints,  maps 
xiii 


PREFACE 

and  manuscripts  relating  to  America.  It  hung 
in  his  oifice,  No.  4  Trafalgar  Square,  until 
after  his  death,  when  it  was  espied  by  a  New 
York  book-seller,  and  the  photograph  of  it 
brought  home  by  him  led  to  its  acquisition 
by  the  writer.  The  painting  appears  to  be 
the  handiwork  of  some  European  artist  who 
took  for  his  model  the  portrait  in  military 
dress  of  "His  Excellency  George  Washing- 
ton, Esq."  painted  by  C.  W.  Peale  in  1787, 
and  afterwards  engraved  by  him  in  mezzo- 
tint, for  it  is  identical  with  it  in  face  and  form, 
and  the  details  of  the  uniform  down  to  the 
number  and  position  of  the  buttons  on  the 
coat  and  waistcoat. 

w.  L.  A. 

"The  Pepperidges," 
West  Islip,  L.  I.,  August,  1905. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

DESIGNED  AND  ENGRAVED 
BY  MR.  SIDNEY  L.  SMITH 


1  Portrait  of  Washington  and  view  of 

the  "Long  Room"  in  Fraunces' 
Tavern      .....  frontispiece 

2  Emblem  of  the  United  States  above 

the  Washington  Pew  in  St.  Paul's 

Chapel  TITLE-PAGE 

3  ''The  Pepperidges"  ...  xi 

4  Flowers  in  Sunlight  .      .      .  xiv 

5  Plan  of  New  York  City  in  1780, 

showing  the  line  of  the  "barrier.'' 

— From  an  unpublished  drawing.  4 

6  Washington's    Headquarters,  New- 

burgh-on-Hudson     ....  5 

7  St.  Paul's  Chapel        ....  26 

8  The  Government  House           .      .  27 

9  Portrait  of  Mrs.  Washington     .      .  38 

XV 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

10  Statue   of   Washington    on  Sub- 

Treasury  Steps      ....  39 

1 1  The  Inauguration  Ball  Fan     .      .  58 

12  The  McComb  Mansion,  Broadway, 

near  Trinity  Church      ...  59 

13  Washington's  Coach        ...  78 

14  Federal  Hall,  Wall  Street,  head  of 

Broadway  81 

15  Finis  88 


OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facsimile  of  a  Broadside  of  1774  .  .  19 
Facsimile  of  Christopher  Colles'  Plan 

for  a  Reservoir      ....  29 

Facsimile  of  Charter  of  King's  College  .  67 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON  KNEW  IT 
AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON  KNEW  IT 
AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 


HE  news  of  the  signing  at  Paris, 
of  preliminary  articles  of  peace 
between  Great  Britain  and  the 
Thirteen  United  States,  in  North 
America,  reached  New  York,  ac- 
cording to  certain  distinguished  historians,  by 
the  packet  "Washington"  on  the  twelfth  of 
March,  1783.  Other  writers,  whose  dicta  is  gen- 
erally accepted,  state,  that  the  intelligence  was 
brought,  a  fortnight  or  so  later,  in  a  French  ves- 
sel from  Cadiz,  with  a  letter  from  the  Marquis  de 
Lafayette,  who  was  then  at  that  place,  preparing 
for  an  expedition  to  the  West  Indies,  under 

5 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Count  d'Estaing.  By  whichever  of  these  routes 
the  "joyful"  news  was  first  received,  is  not  a 
matter  of  prime  historical  importance,  and  there- 
fore we  have  not  ransacked  the  records  in  order 
to  settle  the  question  beyond  peradventure. 

The  definitive  treaty  of  peace,  couched  in 
the  words  of  the  provisional  articles,  was  not 
signed  by  David  Hartley,  the  King's  Commis- 
sioner, and  the  Envoys  from  the  United  States, 
John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  John  Jay, 
until  the  third  of  September,  1783,  but  peace 
was  in  the  air,  and  its  harbingers  had  hovered 
over  land  and  sea  since  the  beginning  of  the 
year.  On  the  fifth  of  April,  1783,  the  Brit- 
ish Packet  "  PRINCE  william  henry  "  arrived 
at  New  York,  with  the  King's  proclamation  de- 
claring a  "  cessation  of  arms."  The  War  of  In- 
dependence was  fought  and  won.  Two  weeks 
later — eight  years  to  a  day  from  the  date  of  the 
memorable  running  fight  at  Lexington  —  the 
official  announcement  by  the  Commander  of 
his  Majesty's  forces,  in  New  York,  of  a  discon- 
tinuance of  hostilities,  was  communicated  to  the 
American  Army  Headquarters  at  Newburg-on- 
the-Hudson,  but  Autumn  had  passed  into  the 
"  sere  and  yellow  leaf  "  before  Sir  Guy  Carle- 

6 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

ton  received  orders  from  the  home  Ministry  to 
evacuate  the  city,  and  the  month  of  November 
had  well-nigh  run  its  course,  before  the  crown- 
ing event  of  the  war  took  place,  to  wit:  the  sur- 
render of  the  "  last  of  the  British  strongholds 
within  the  original  Thirteen  States  " — twelve  of 
which  King  George's  troops  had  actually  in- 
vaded, (holding  possession  of  the  capitals  of  all 
but  two)  at  one  time  or  another  during  the 
seven  years  that  the  conflict  raged. 

Throughout  the  summer,  many  of  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  Continental  Army,  had  been  al- 
lowed to  return  to  their  homes  on  furlough.  The 
Army  virtually  had  been  disbanded,  and  only  a 
small  military  force  remained  at  West  Point,  un- 
der command  of  Major  General  Henry  Knox.* 
A  detachment  of  these  troops,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing of  November  the  twenty-fifth,  moved  down 
from  Harlem  to  near  the  "  barrier,"  a  fortified 
line  which  crossed  the  Bowery  Road,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  present  Grand  Street.  Here  they 
halted  until  the  British  forces  were  withdrawn  to 
Governor's,  and  other  islands  in  the  Bay,  there  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  transports  that  were  to 

*  Washington's  First  Secretary  of  War,  Secretary  General  of  the 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati. 


7 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

carry  them  back  to  England,  or  to  the  bleak  and 
barren  shores  of  Nova  Scotia,  accompanied  by 
those  dilatory  Refugees  and  Tories,  who  had 
neglected  previous  opportunities  for  departure, 
such  as  the  one  advertised  in  Hugh  Gaine's 
Gazette  of  Monday,  October  sixth,  1783. 

"  Notice  is  hereby  given  to  all  those  loyal- 
ists signed  in  Capt.  John  Hinchman's  Com- 
pany for  Annapolis  Royal  [N.  S.]  that  the  ship 
Betsey,  Capt.  William  Galilee  laying  off  the  Fly 
Market,  is  now  ready  for  taking  them  and  their 
effects  on  board;  and  unless  they  are  embarked 
by  Saturday  next  to  pass  muster  the  Absen- 
tees will  be  struck  off  the  list:  and  must  expect 
no  Assistance  from  the  Government  after  such 
neglect. 

John  Hinchman." 

There  is  a  sentimental  story  in  circulation — 
pronounced  by  many  to  be  as  apocryphal  as 
that  moral  tale  of  the  Hatchet  and  Cherry  Tree 
with  which  we  are  all  so  familiar,  and  for  which 
Washington's  earliest  biographer,  the  eccentric 
Parson  Weems,  is  primarily  responsible — to  the 
effect,  that  the  British,  on  their  departure,  left  the 
Royal  Standard  floating  over  Fort  George,  and 

8 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

had  cut  the  lanyards  and  greased  the  flag-staff, 
so  that  the  flag  could  not  be  lowered.  There 
are  various  versions  of  the  manner  in  which  this 
sinister  design  of  the  British  was  frustrated.  A 
letter  writer  of  the  time,  asserts  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  procure  a  ladder,  in  order  to  fix  a 
new  rope,  while  another  contemporary  scribe 
states  that  an  honest  tar  with  a  small  rope  in 
his  teeth,  to  which  an  American  flag  was  at- 
tached, scaled  the  flag-staff,  cut  down  the  British 
Standard  and  unfurled  in  its  stead  the  star-span- 
gled Banner  of  the  United  States."  Like  unto 
most  legends  this  one  doubtless  contains  a  mix- 
ture of  truth  and  poetry,  and  now,  having  arrived 
at  this  rather  lame  conclusion,  we  will  return  to 
the  troops  we  left  resting  on  their  arms  at  the 
barrier." 

At  about  one  o'clock  in  the  day,  on  the — by 
all  patriotic  inhabitants  of  this  Island  City — 
never-to-be-forgotten  twenty-fifth  of  November, 
1783,  the  British  forces  left  their  posts  in  the 
Bowery,  and  the  American  troops  marched  on 
and  took  possession  of  the  town.  In  the  after- 
noon. General  Washington,  accompanied  by 
Governor  George  Clinton,  made  his  public  entry 
into  the  city  on  horseback,  at  the  head  of  an 

9 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

imposing  cavalcade  "  of  oificers  of  the  Army, 
members  of  the  Legislature,  the  military,  and  a 
crowd  of  citizens.  The  streets  of  New  York,  wit- 
nessed no  scene  so  impressive  or  heart-stirring 
as  this,  until,  at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War, 
they  resounded  to  the  steady  tramp  of  armed 
men  marching  to  the  front,  amid  the  cheers  and 
plaudits  of  the  multitude,  the  flutter  of  count- 
less flags,  and  the  waving  of  tear-stained  hand- 
kerchiefs in  the  tremulous  hands  of  friends  and 
loved  ones. 

Evacuation  Day  long  remained  a  red-letter 
day  in  our  Civic  Calendar,  and  was  commemor- 
ated with  much  display  of  patriotic  feeling,  but 
with  the  happening  of  other  epoch-making 
events  in  our  history,  its  significance  has  faded; 
the  music  that  enlivened  it  has  died  away; 
the  marching  has  ceased,  and  now,  we,  as  a 
community,*  mark  its  annual  recurrence  only 
by  the  simple  ceremony  of  an  early  morning 
flag-raising,  on  the  Battery  and  on  the  Block- 
House  in  Central  Park. 

Washington  proceeded,  upon  his  arrival  in  the 
city,  to  Fraunces'  Tavern,  on  the  corner  of  Broad 

*The  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution  commemorate  it  and 
hold  a  meeting  on  the  evening  of  Evacuation  Day. 

lO 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

and  Pearl  Streets,  a  building  which  has  success- 
fully resisted  for  two  centuries  and  more  the 
corroding  tooth  of  time,"  and  is  now,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  acquisition  by  the  Society  of  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution,  secured  for  the  future, 
against  demolition,  or  any  form  of  vandalism. 
The  Society  obtained  title  to  the  property  for 
eighty  thousand  dollars.  In  the  estimation  of 
every  New  York  antiquary,  the  historical  asso- 
ciations that  cluster  about  the  structure  are 
beyond  computation  in  dollars  and  cents,  with- 
out reference  to  the  commercial  value  of  a  plot 
of  ground  50  x  60  feet  in  dimensions,  situated 
within  gun-shot*  of  one  of  the  great  money  cen- 
tres of  the  world. 

This  famous  tavern  was  purchased  in  1762, 
from  Oliver  Delancey  for  £2000,  provincial  cur- 
rency, by  Samuel  Fraunces,  a  "  swarthy  man  " 
from  the  West  Indies,  a  noted  caterer  and  a  pop- 
ular Boniface.  In  1785  Fraunces  sold  the  prop- 
erty, why  and  wherefore  the  writer  is  unable  to 
state. 

Upon  Washington's  election  to  the  Chief 
Magistracy  of  the  Nation,  "  Black  Sam,"  as 
Fraunces  was  familiarly  called,  was  appointed 

*  1,400  feet. 

I  I 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Steward  to  the  President's  household,  and  ap- 
pears to  have  filled  the  office  of  Majordomo  with 
satisfaction  to  his  employer,  for  when  the  seat 
of  government  was  shortly  removed  to  Philadel- 
phia, he  accompanied  Washington  to  the  Quaker 
City,  and  there  served  him  in  the  same  capac- 
ity, as  may  be  seen  by  this  receipt: 

12th  May  iyg4  received  of  Bartholomew 
Dandridge ,  One  hundred  and  sixty-two  dollars 
and  18/100  to  purchase  sundries  for  the  Presi- 
dent's household.'' 

Samuel  Fraunces." 

The  strictly  cash  basis  upon  which  the  ex- 
penses of  Washington's  domestic  establishment 
were  conducted,  is  evidenced  by  this  cautionary 
notice,  which  we  find  frequently  repeated  in  the 
public  prints: 

"  THE    president's  HOUSEHOLD 

Whereas  all  Serveants  and  others  em- 
ployed to  procure  Provisions  or  Necessaries  for 
the  Household  of  the  President  of  the  united 
STATES,  will  be  furnished  with  Monies  for  these 
Purposes — 

Notice  is  therefore  given  that  no  Ac- 
counts for  the  Payment  of  which  the  Public 

12 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

might  be  considered  as  responsible,  are  to  be 
opened  with  any  of  them. 

Samuel  Fraunces, 

Steward  of  the  Household. 

May  4,  1789/' 

The  wife  of  this  noted  character  must  have 
been  a  woman  of  intelligence,  and  possessed  of 
some  executive  ability,  for  during  her  husband's 
absence  in  the  service  of  the  President,  j\lrs. 
Fraunces  was  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of 
the  tavern-keeping  and  catering  business.  The 
advertisement  which  announces  this  change  in 
management  is  clipped  from  Samuel  Loudon's 
newspaper,  "The  New  York  Packet,"  of  the 
seventh  of  May,  1789. 

"  SAMUEL  FRAUNCES 

With  respect  returns  his  most  grateful  thanks 
to  the  General  Public,  for  their  support  since  his 
late  commencement  in  business;  assures  them 
that  he  feels  their  favors  sensibly,  and  will  en- 
deavor always  to  be  found  worthy  of  the  same. 
He  informs  them  that  the  business  will  be  car- 
ried on  by  Mrs.  Fraunces  as  usual  at  No.  49 
Cortlandt  Street,  where  the  general  stage 
OFFICE  is  kept,  and  that  they  may  depend  on 

13 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

being  well  served,  and  at  the  cheapest  rate. 
Oysters  and  lobsters,  beef  a  la  mode, 
etc.,  are  put  up  in  the  most  approved  man- 
ner for  exportation  and  on  the  shortest  no- 
tice. 

An  Active  young  man  is  immediately 
wanted  at  the  above  place  as  a  waiter:  He 
must  bring  the  best  recommendations." 

Other  members  of  this  West  Indian  family, 
besides  its  trustworthy  and  capable  head,  were  of 
conspicuous  service  to  the  great  Chieftain.  The 
first  military  execution  of  the  Revolution  was 
that  of  an  Irishman  named  Thomas  Hickey,  one 
of  Washington's  body-guard,  who  was  hanged 
on  the  twenty-eighth  of  June,  1776,  for  com- 
plicity in  the  Tory  plot  known  in  our  local  his- 
tory by  his  name.  It  is  written  in  the  books  that 
this  design  was  frustrated  by  the  faithfulness 
of  Washington's  housekeeper,  while  he  was  resid- 
ing at  Richmond  Hill  House.  She  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  Fraunces,  and  proved  her  loyalty 
to  the  American  cause  by  divulging  to  her  mas- 
ter the  whole  conspiracy. 

Washington's  farewell  parting  with  his  offi- 
cers took  place  in  the  "  Long-room"  of  Fraun- 

14 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

ces'  Tavern.  No  incident  in  our  history  is  more 
trite  and  familiar  than  this;  it  is  indeed  a  thrice- 
told  tale.  Over  and  over  again  the  scene  has 
been  described  by  writers,  most  of  whom,  i 
imagine,  quoted  the  account,  as  1  am  about  to 
do,  from  Marshall's  "  Life  of  Washington." 
Fortunately,  it  is  one  of  those  old,  old  stories 
that  are  ever  new,  for  a  picture  of  New  York 
at  the  precise  period  we  are  attempting  to  de- 
scribe, would  be  imperfect  without  the  touch 
of  color  that  it  lends. 

This  affecting  interview,"  writes  Marshall, 
**  took  place  on  the  4th  of  December  [  1 783].  At 
noon  the  principal  officers  of  the  army  assembled 
at  Fraunces'  Tavern  soon  after  which  their  be- 
loved commander  entered  the  room.  His  emo- 
tions were  too  strong  to  be  concealed.  Filling  a 
glass  he  turned  to  them  and  said/  With  a  heart 
full  of  love  and  gratitude,  I  now  take  leave  of 
you ;  I  most  devoutly  wish,  that  your  latter  days 
may  be  as  prosperous  and  happy  as  your  former 
ones  have  been  glorious  and  honorable.'  Having 
drunk,  he  added,  '  I  cannot  come  to  each  of  you 
to  take  my  leave,  but  shall  be  obliged  if  each  of 
you  will  come  and  take  me  by  the  hand.'  Gen- 
eral Knox,  being  nearest,  turned  to  him.  Wash- 

15 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON    KNEW  IT 

ington,  incapable  of  utterance,  grasped  his  hands 
and  embraced  him.  In  the  same  affectionate 
manner  he  took  leave  of  each  succeeding  offi- 
cer. Leaving  the  room  he  passed  through  the 
corps  of  light  infantry,  and  walked  to  White 
Hall,  where  a  barge  waited  to  convey  him  to 
Paulus  Hook.  The  whole  company  followed  in 
mute  and  solemn  procession.  Having  entered 
the  barge,  he  turned  to  the  company,  and,  wav- 
ing his  hat,  bid  them  a  silent  adieu." 

Congress  had  adjourned  from  Princeton,  to 
Annapolis,  in  Maryland,  and  thither  Washington 
travelled  by  easy  stages,  to  resign  his  commis- 
sion as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army.  This 
ceremony  was  performed  on  the  twenty-third 
of  December.  The  following  morning  he  left 
Annapolis,  and  reached  Mt.  Vernon  the  same 
day,  after  an  absence  of  more  than  eight  years 
and  a  half  in  command  of  the  Army,  during 
which  period,"  says  Jared  Sparks  in  his  Biogra- 
phy of  Washington,  "  the  General  had  never 
been  at  his  own  house,  except  accidentally, 
while  on  his  way  with  Count  de  Rochambeau 
to  Yorktown,  and  in  returning  from  that  expe- 
dition." 

The  phrase  "  the  distressed  town  of  Boston  " 
i6 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

has  become  firmly  imbedded  in  the  history  of 
the  American  Revolution.  The  men  of  the 
Colony  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  "  had  a 
fixed  habit  of  claiming  leadership  and  pre-emi- 
nence in  acts  of  patriotism,  in  those  "  days 
that  tried  men's  souls."  They  left  The  Liberty 
Bell  to  the  Quaker  City,  and  that  was  about  all 
that  they  did  not  attach  to  themselves.  The 
first  and  only  tea-party!  The  first  blood  shed! 
The  first  organized  band  of  Liberty  Boys!  The 
first  Liberty  Tree!  all  these  and  more  they  ap- 
propriated, but  Henry  B.  Dawson,  as  painstak- 
ing, conscientious  and  reliable  an  historian  of 
New  York  City,  as  we  have  ever  had,  thus  chal- 
lenges their  assertions  and  disputes  their  claims: 
The  FIRST  BLOOD  which  was  shed  in  de- 
fence of  the  rights  of  America  flowed  from  the 
veins  of  her  (New  York's)  inhabitants  on  the 
Golden  Hill  (John  Street),  Jan.  i8,  1770,  two 
months  before  '  the  Massacre  '  in  King  Street, 
Boston,  and  five  years  and  three  months  before 
the  affair  at  Lexington.  She,  also,  as  well  as 
Boston  and  Annapolis,  had  a  tea  party;  and 
she  as  well  as  they,  seasoned  the  waters  of  her 
harbor  with  the  taxed  tea  which  the  cupidity  of 
the  East  India  Company  and  the  insolence  of 

17 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

the  Government  had  attempted  to  thrust  into 
her  midst — differing  from  Boston,  only  in  doing 
fearlessly,  in  broad  daylight,  and  without  dis- 
guises, what  the  latter  had  done  with  timidity,  in 
the  darkness  of  night,  and  in  the  guise  of  '  Mo- 
hawks.' And,  lastly,  when  hostilities  had  been 
commenced,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  following 
pages,  she  did  not  hesitate  to  take  a  place  in  the 
very  front  rank  of  the  opposition  or  to  prove  by 
the  daring  of  her  sons,  her  title  to  that  position, 
by  overturning  the  King's  authority  in  that  city 
and  by  establishing  in  its  stead  a  'Committee  of 
One  Hundred '  of  her  citizens,  (appointed  the  last 
of  April,  1775),  long  before  any  similar  step  was 
taken  by  any  other  community  in  the  country."  * 
The  facsimile  here  shown,  is  taken  from  one 
of  the  original  Broadsides,  or  Hand  Bills,  circu- 
lated at  the  time,  which  is  nowin  the  possession 
of  the  writer.  It  announces  the  appointment, 
May  16,  1774,  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty  Citi- 
zens, which  preceded  the  Committee  of  One 
Hundred  mentioned  above.  Isaac  Low,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  acted  as 
Chairman  of  both  these  Committees.  This 
prominent  citizen  of  New  York  in  these  troub- 

*"New  York  City  During  the  American  Revolution,"  page  12. 
18 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 


AT  a  Meeting  at  the  Exchange,    i6th  May, 
1774,  ISAAC  LOW,  chofen  CHAIRMAN. 
I  ft  Queftion  put,  Whether  it  is  necelTary  for  the 
prefent,  to  appoint  a  Committee  to  correfpond  with  the 
neighbouring  Colonies,  on  the  prefent  important  Crifis? 
Carried  in  the  Affirmative  by  a  great  Majority. 

2d.  Whether  a  Committee  be  nominated  this  Even- 
ing for  the  Approbation  of  the  PubHc? — Carried  in  the 
Affirmative  by  a  great  Majority. 

3d.  Whether  the  Committee  of  50  be  appointed,  or 
25.^ — Carried  for  50,  by  a  great  Slajority. 

The  following  Perfons  were  nominated: 


John  Alfop, 
William  Bayard, 
Theophylad  Bache, 
Peter  V.  B.  Livingfton, 
Philip  Livingfton, 
Ifaac  Sears, 
David  Johnfton, 
Charles  M'  Evers, 
Charles  Nicholl, 
Alexander  M'Doiigall, 
Capt.  Thomas  Randall, 
John  Moore, 
Ifaac  Low, 
Leonard  Lifpenard, 
Jacobus  Van  Zandt, 
James  Duane, 
Edward  Laight, 
Thomas  Pearfall, 
Elias  Defbroffes, 
William  Walton^ 
Richard  Yates, 
John  De  Lancey, 
Miles  Sherbrook, 
John  Thurman, 
John  Jay, 
John  Broome, 


Benjamin  Booth, 
Jofeph  Hallett, 
Charles  Shaw, 
Alexander  Wallace, 
James  Jauncey, 
Gabriel  H.  Ludlow, 
Nicholas  Hoffman, 
Abraham  Walton, 
Gerardus  Duyckinck, 
Peter  Van  Schauck, 
Henry  Remfen, 
Hamilton  Young, 
George  Bowne, 
Peter  T.  Curtenlus, 
Peter  Goelet, 
Abraham  Bralher, 
Abraham  P.  Lott, 
David  Van  Home, 
Gerardus  W.  Beekman, 
Abraham  Duryee, 
Jofeph  Bull, 
William  M'Adam, 
Pv-ichard  Sharpe, 
Thomas  Marfton, 
Francis  Lewis,  added  nem, 
con.  May  19th, 


•9 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

lous  times  finally  became  a  loyalist  refugee,  al- 
though his  name  does  not  appear  among  the 

adherents  to  the  fortunes  of  the  crown  "  who 
signed  the  loyal  address  to  Admiral  and  General 
Howe  on  the  occasion  of  their  occupation  of 
New  York  in  1776.  Isaac  Low  was  a  large 
holder  of  lands  in  the  northern  part  of  this  state, 
which  were  confiscated  during  the  war,  and  sold 
under  the  act  of  attainder.  Lowville  in  Lewis 
County,  New  York,  was  named  after  a  member 
of  his  family  who  clung  to  the  fortunes  of  the 
revolted  colonies  and  retained  possession  of  his 
landed  property. 

Boston  could  not  have  suffered  so  severely 
from  British  occupancy  as  New  York,  for  it  was 
but  a  question  of  months  with  the  capital  of  the 
**old  Bay  State,"  as  it  was  also  with  the  chief 
city  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,*  whereas  the 
English  held  this  unfortunate  town  under  mili- 
tary jurisdiction  for  seven  long  years.  It  was 
a  sad  scene  of  neglect  and  devastation,  that  the 
people  looked  upon  in  the  Fall  of  1783,  when 
they  hastened  back  and  sought  their  old  homes 
once  more.    On  every  hand  were  vestiges  of  the 

*  Philadelphia  was  taken  September  27,  1777,  and  evacuated 
June  18,  1778. 

20 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Great  Fire  of  1776*  and  the  lesser  one  of  1778. 
The  still  standing  brick  walls  of  the  ruined 
edifices  cast  sombre  shadows  upon  the  pave- 
ments, and  gave  to  the  streets  they  lined,  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  city  of  the  dead.  Buildings  that 
the  flames  had  spared,  fared  little  better  at  the 
hands  of  the  British  soldiery  in  the  years  of  strife 
that  followed.  At  the  commencement  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  "there  were,"  according  to 
Dr.  Rodgers,"  nineteen  places  of  public  worship 
in  the  city.  At  its  close,  only  nine  were  found 
fit  for  occupancy,"  and  as  the  reverend  gentle- 
man returned  to  New  York  the  day  after  the 
Evacuation,  his  testimony  is  that  of  an  eye  wit- 
ness and  a  very  competent  one  at  that. 

The  "  Middle "  Dutch  Church,  in  Nassau 
Street,  denuded  of  its  interior  fittings,  had  been 
turned  into  a  prison  pen,  and  a  riding  school  for 
the  British  officers  and  soldiers.  The  "  North  " 
Dutch  Church  on  the  corner  of  William  and 


*This  fire  occurred  the  twenty-first  of  September,  1776.  Ac- 
cording to  an  eye  witness,  the  tavern  keeper  and  local  historian, 
David  Grim,  493  houses  were  destroyed.  The  fire  of  1778  hap- 
pened on  the  third  of  August  and  about  50  houses  were  consumed. 
James  Hardie,  in  his  "  Description  of  the  City  of  New  York,"  is 
very  much  out  of  his  reckoning  in  his  statement  that  about  1,000 
houses  were  reduced  to  ashes  in  the  Fire  of  1776. 


21 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Fulton  Streets,  stripped  of  its  pews  and  pulpit, 
was  used  as  a  hospital  and  a  storage  warehouse. 
The  Church  in  Garden  Street,  (now  Exchange 
Place),  was,  however,  found  in  good  condition, 
and  was  opened  for  service  the  first  Sunday  after 
the  Evacuation.  The  North  "  Church  was 
repaired,  and  in  use  by  December,  1784,  but  the 
"  Middle"  Dutch  Church  was  not  restored  and  fit- 
ted for  worship,  until  theyeari  790.  The**  Brick" 
Meeting  House  in  Beekman  Street,  of  which 
the  celebrated  Dr.  John  Rodgers,  from  whom 
we  quote  above,  was  the  minister,  was  the  first 
of  the  Presbyterian  Churches*  to  be  reopened. 
It  was  found  to  be  less  injured  than  the  one 
in  Wall  Street,  between  Nassau  and  Broadway, 
belonging  to  the  same  denomination,  and  was 
repaired  in  about  six  months  at  a  cost  of  be- 
tween three  and  four  thousand  dollars. 

Trinity  Church,  with  the  Rectory  and  Charity 
School,  were  burned  in  the  fire  of  1776,  and  St. 
Paul's  Chapel  narrowly  escaped  destruction. 
No  effort  was  made  to  rebuild  Trinity,  and  its 
charred  ruins,  writes  Dr.  Dix,  remained  un- 
touched during  the  Revolutionary  War — "  the 

*The  First  Presbyterian  Church  was  founded  in  17 19.  The  sec- 
ond, the  one  in  Beekman  Street,  in  1767. 

22 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

grass  grew  green  in  the  crevices  and  the  birds 
had  shelter  in  the  roofless  walls." 

December  the  iith,  1783,  was  appointed  by 
Congress  as  a  Day  of  Public  Thanksgiving 
throughout  the  United  States.  In  a  note  to  the 
sermon  preached  on  this  occasion,  by  Dr.  Rod- 
gers,  and  afterwards  published  in  pamphlet 
form,  he  asserts  that  the  British  displayed  the 
most  animosity,  against  religious  bodies  not  of 
the  faith  of  the  Church  of  England — Assemblies 
of  Dissenters,  as  they  were  disparagingly  called 
— and  he  holds  General  Howe's  soldiers  largely 
accountable  for  the  ravages  of  the  great 
conflagration  in  1776.  "It  is  true,''  he  writes. 
Trinity  Church  and  the  old  Lutheran,  were 
destroyed  by  the  fire  that  laid  waste  so  great 
a  part  of  the  city,  a  few  nights  after  the  en- 
emy took  possession  of  it ;  and,  therefore, 
they  are  not  charged  with  designedly  burning 
them,  though  they  were  the  occasion  of  it,  for 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  after  all  that  malice  has 
said  to  the  contrary;  but  thefirewas  occasioned 
by  thecarelessness  of  their  people,  and  they  pre- 
vented its  more  speedy  extinguishment.  But  the 
ruinous  situation  in  which  they  left  two  of  the 
Low  Dutch  Reformed  Churches,  the  Three  Pres- 

23 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

by terian  Churches,  the  French  Protestant  Church 
the  Anabaptist  Church,  and  the  Friends'  New 
Meeting-house,  was  the  effect  of  design,  and 
strongly  marks  their  enmity  to  those  societies. 
It  will  cost  many  thousands  of  pounds  sterling 
to  put  them  in  the  repair  they  were,  when  the 
war  commenced.  They  were  all  neat  buildings 
and  some  of  them  elegant."* 

During  the  occupancy  of  the  city  by  the  Brit- 
ish, and  until  Trinity  Church  was  rebuilt,  St. 
PauFs  Chapel  was  the  principal  edifice  in  the 
Diocese  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and 
to  it,  Washington,  after  taking  his  Presidential 
oath  of  office  in  the  face  of  heaven  and  in 
presence  of  a  large  concourse  of  people  assem- 
bled in  front  of  Federal  Hall"),  proceeded  on 
foot — attended  by  the  whole  company,  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  inauguration,  and  there,  the 


Dr.  Rodgers's  text  for  this  Thanksgiving  sermon  was  taken  from 
Psalm  cxxvi,  :j  :  "The  Lord  has  done  great  things  for  us  whereof 
we  are  glad."  in  his  discourse  he  ascribes  the  "honorable  and  glo- 
rious peace"  which  secured  to  the  United  States  the  fullest  posses- 
sion of  absolute  sovereignty,  independent  of  the  crown  and  people 
of  Britain,  or  any  other  power  on  earth,  to  the  national  debt  which 
shook  their  national  credit.  But  for  this,  he  believes,  they  would  not 
so  readily  have  listened  to  terms  of  pacification  with  us  ;  much  less 
would  they  have  given  us  the  advantageous  and  honorable  terms  we 
have  obtained. 


24 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

ceremonies  of  that  memorable  day,  in  the  Spring 
of  1 789,  were  concluded  with  appropriate  services, 
conducted  by  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Sam- 
uel Provost,  D.D.,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate. 

Washington's  pew  in  the  north  aisle  of  St. 
Paul's  Chapel,  over  which  is  suspended  a 
shield,  emblazoned  with  the  device  of  the 
United  States,  is  an  object  of  special  interest 
to  the  wayfarer,  who  turns  aside  for  a  moment 
from  the  rush  of  the  fortune-seeking  crowd,  and 
the  deafening  roar  of  the  traffic,  in  lower  Broad- 
way during  the  hours  of  business,  into  the  quiet 
atmosphere  and  "dim  religious  light"  of  this — 
the  most  attractive,  in  the  chaste  simplicity  of 
its  architecture,  and  its  quaint  mural  tablets, 
of  all  our  Episcopal  churches.  Facing  the  Presi- 
dent's pew  on  the  south  wall  of  the  church,  a 
shield  bearing  the  arms  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  indicates  the  pew  set  apart  for  Governor 
Clinton. 

These  are  not  the  identical  pews  occupied  by 
these  dignitaries,  for  about  thirty  years  ago,  as 
the  writer  is  informed  by  one  of  the  officers  of 
Trinity  Corporation,"  the  old  pews  were  all  re- 
moved, and  the  present  ones  substituted  for 
them,  but  the  present  President's  and  Govern- 

25 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

or's  pews,  are  substantially  in  the  same  positions 
and  of  the  same  size  as  the  original  ones." 

The  President  was  a  constant  attendant  upon 
the  Sunday  services,  at  St.  Paul's.  "  In  his 
Diary,  1789  to  1791,"  writes  Dr.  Dix,  as  regu- 
larly almost  as  the  Lord's  day  comes  round, 
we  fmd  the  entry,  *  Went  to  St.  Paul's  Chapel  in 
the  forenoon/  " 


CHAPTER  II 


T  is  difficult  to  realize  the  un- 
importance of  New  York  City, 
in  size  and  population,  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Its  inhabitants  numbered  less 
than  24,000,  domiciled  in  3,400  houses — mostly, 
as  the  Tariff  of  the  one  Insurance  Co.,  then  in 
existence  shows — frame  buildings  with  brick 
or  stone  fronts,  and  the  sides  filled  in  with 
brick.  The  First  New  York  Directory,  issued 
by  David  Franks  in  1786,  is  a  small  octavo 
volume  of  82  pages  and  contains  only  900 
names.    The  canvass  for  the  Directory  for  the 

27 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

year  of  Washington's  inauguration  must  have 
been  more  carefully  and  thoroughly  conducted 
by  the  publishers,  Hodge,  Allen  &  Campbell,  for 
it  numbers  144  pages  and  includes  about  4,300 
names  and  addresses. 

Christopher  Colles,  whose  plan  for  the  erec- 
tion of  a  Reservoir,  on  the  open  ground  near 
the  New  Gaol,  and  the  laying  of  good  pitch 
pine  pipes,  well  hooped  with  iron,  to  distribute 
fresh  water  through  the  city  " — had  been  inter- 
rupted by  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  estimated  that  there  were  3,000  houses 
that  received  water  from  the  Tea  Water  men, 
for  which  each  house  paid  One  Penny  Half- 
Penny  per  day.  This  leaves  400  houses,  the 
inhabitants  of  which,  either  from  necessity  or 
from  choice,  depended  upon  other  sources  of 
water  supply. 

The  city  was  claimed  by  its  inhabitants  to  be 
half  a  mile  wide  and  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  but 
Thomas  Twining,  an  English  East  India  mer- 
chant, who  travelled  in  this  country  a  century 
ago,  and  boasted  that  he  had  been  received  by 
the  Great  Mogul  on  his  throne  in  the  old  world, 
and  by  General  Washington  in  the  new,  noted 
that  it  was  usual  in  America,  to  reckon  as  streets 

28 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 


%  As  the  feveral  Inhabitants  of  this  City  are  particularly  interefted  in  the  following  % 

•  Affair,  it  is  therefore  judged  proper  to  lay  the  fame  before  them.  ^ 

•  COPYOFA 

I    PROP  OSAL 

t  Of   CHRISTOPHER  COLLES, 

^      For  furnifhing  the  City  of  New-Tori  with  a  conftant  Supply  of  Fresh  Water. 

•  To  the  Worshipful 

I  The  MAYOR,  ALDERMEN,  and  COMMONALTY, 

?  Of  the  City  of  New-York,  in  Common  Council  convened. 


♦  rr^HE  numerous  and  important  Advanuges  which  great  and  populous  Cities  derive  from  a  plentiful  Supply  of  * 
®     A  •  frefli  Water,  requires  a  general  Attention ;  and  as  this  City  is  very  deficient  in  this  Article,  § 

I  CHRISTOPHER   COLLES,  I 


^  HUMBLY  offers  his  Services  to  erefl  a  Refervoir  on  the  open  Ground  near  the  New  Gaol,  of  One  Hundred 

^  and  Twenty-fix  Feet  Square,  with  a  good  Bank  of  Earth  furroundwl .  with  a  good  Brick  or  Stone  Wall 
Twelve  Feet  high,  and  capable  of  holding  One  Million  Two  Hundred  Thouland  Gallons  of  Water  ;  which 
will  be  of  exceeding  Utility  in  Cafe  of  Fire,  which  all  Cities  are  liable  to.    To  erecl  a  Fire-Engine  in  a  good  Brick 

%  or  Stone  Houfe  cover'd  with  Tiles,  capable  of  raifing  into  the  faid  Refervoir  Two  Hundred  Thouland  Gallons  of 

§  Water  in  Twenty-four  Hours.    To  lay  Four  Feet  deep  through  the  Broad-Way,  Broad-Street,  Nafliu-Street, 

*  William-Street,  Smith-Street,  Queen- Street,  and  Hanover-Square,  a  main  Pipe  of  good  Pitch  Fine  of  fix  Inches 

»  Bore,  well  hooped  at  one  End  wiih  Iron ;  and  through  every  other  Street,  Lane  and  Alley  in  the  City  South  Weft 

©  of  Murray's-Street,  King  George's-ftre^t,  Banker's-Street,  and  Rutger's-Street,-  the  like  Kind  of  Pipe  of  Three 

§  Inches  Bore,  with  a  perpendicular  Pipe  and  a  Cock  at  every  Hundred  Yards  of  fjid  Pipes,— a  proper  Contrivance  to 

^  prevent  the  fame  from  Damage  by  Froft  i  and  alfo  on  every  Wharf  a  convenient  Pipe  and  Cock  to  fupply  the 

^  Shipping.    The  Whole  to  be  completely  finiOicd  in  a  workmanlike  Manner  within  two  Years  from  the  Time  of 

^  making  the  Agreement,  for  the  Sum  of  Eighteen  Thoufand  Pounds  New- York  Currency,  by 

I  CHRISTOPHER  COLLES. 

^  The  following  Calculation  Oirwiag  the  Utility  of  the  above  Defign,  will,  it  is  imagined,  be  found  upon  Infpe£Uon 

^  as  fair  and  accurate  as  the  Nature  of  fuch  Things  will  admit 

O  It  is  fuppofcd  there  are  3000  Houfes  that  receive  Water  from  the  Tea  Water  Men  ;  that  at  the  leaft,  upoa  an 

(A  Average,  each  Houfe  pays  One  Penny  Half-penny  per  Day  for  this  Water  ;  this  makes  the  Sum  of  £.  6750  per 

^  Annum,  which  is  45s.  for  each  Houfe  per  Ann.    According  to  the  Defign  propofed,  there  will  be  paid  £.  6000  per 

Q  Ann.  for  four  Years,  which  is  40s.  each  Hoiife :  By  which  it  appears,  that  even  whilft  the  Works  are  paying  for,  • 

+  there  will  be  a  faving  made  to  the  City  of  £.  750  per.Ann.  and  alter  the  faid  4  Years,  as  the  Tax  will  not  be  more 

O  than  los.  per^nnum  to  be  paid  by  each  Houfe,  it  is  evident  that  there  will  be  laved  to  the  City  the  yearly  Sum  of 

❖  I-  5^50.  fof 

^  In  this  Calculadon  it  is  luppofed  that  40s.  per  Ann.  is  to  be  paid  for  4  Years,  but  this  ij  done  only  to  provide 
againft  any  unforcfeen  difficulties  that  may  occur.    It  is  imagined  that  that  Sum  paid  3  Years  will  eBe&  the  Bufincfs. 

•fr  The  great  Plenty  of  the  Water,  and  its  fuperior  Quality,  are  Advantages  which  have  not  been  before  fpecified,  but 

38(  muft  appear  of  conCderable  Moment  to  ¥very  judicious  Perfon. 


NEW-rORK:  Printed  by  HUGH    GA  INE,  in  HANOVER-SQUARE. 
29 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

such  as  were  only  contemplated  and  not  yet 
begun.  Consequently,  it  was  not  easy  to  know 
how  much  of  the  size  of  the  city  was  imaginary. 
Only  a  few  of  the  streets  were  paved  with  cob- 
ble stones,  and  the  gutter  ran  down  the  centre  of 
the  roadway  after  the  manner  of  the  old  Dutch 
times.  The  best  streets  in  the  City,  in  the  eyes 
of  a  looker-on.  Governor  Drayton*  of  South 
Carolina,  who  visited  us  in  1793,  were  Broad- 
way, Broad  Street,  Queen  (the  part  of  Pearl 
Street  above  Hanover  Square)  and  Wall  Street. 

In  all  these  streets,  as  well  as  in  the  remaining 
thoroughfares  of  the  town,  churches,  with  their 
surrounding  graveyards,  taverns,  marketplaces, 
business  houses,  and  private  residences,  elbowed 
or  faced  one  another.  There  was  no  exclusively 
residential  street.  In  fact  some  of  the  highly  re- 
spectable merchants  of  the  day  lived  over,  or  in 
proximity  to  their  stores. 

In  the  "  Common,"  now  the  City  Hall  Park, 
stood,  all  in  a  row,  three  grewsome  buildings: 
The  Bridewell,  The  City  Alms  House  and  The 
Prison.    Broadway,  still  called  in  this  part  of 

**' Letters  written  during  a  tour  of  the  Northern  and  Eastern 
States  of  America,"  by  John  Drayton, Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
1794. 

30 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

its  length  Great  George  Street,  was  unpaved, 
sparsely  settled,  and  terminated  at  Broome 
Street.  The  marshy  body  of  water  known  as 
the  Fresh  Water  or  Collect  Pond,  where  for 
years  stood  the  building  in  the  Egyptian  style 
of  architecture,  best  known  by  the  title  of  'The 
Tombs,"  and  where  now  in  its  stead,  the  Bastille- 
like City  Prison  rears  its  forbidding-looking  walls 
as  a  warning  to  evil-doers,  was  a  resort  of  fisher- 
men and  gunners — a  skating-pond  in  winter,  and 
utilized  for  laundry  purposes  at  other  seasons  of 
the  year,  until  the  practice,  presumably  for  sani- 
tary reasons,  was  forbidden  by  law. 

It  was  upon  this  confined  sheet  of  water  that 
John  Fitch,  in  1796  or  '97  made  with  an  or- 
dinary ship's  yawl  which  he  had  fitted  with 
paddle  wheels  and  a  rude  steam  engine,  his  first 
crude  experiments  in  steam  navigation. 

The  "  Bowery  Lane  "  on  the  East  side  of  the 
city,  beginning  at  Grand  Street,  and  the  Road 
to  Greenwich  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  were 
from  Reade  Street  north,  quiet  country  roads, 
shaded  with  sycamore,  elm  and  catalpa  trees, 
winding  across  Lispenard's  Meadows,  and 
through  the  groves,  farms  and  orchards,  the 
country  seats  and  suburban  residences  of  the 

31 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Stuyvesants,  Beekmans,  De  Lanceys,  Bayards, 
Duanes,  Murrays  and  others  of  the  principal 
citizens  of  New  York.  More  town-  than  city- 
like was  the  appearance  of  the  now  proud  city 
of  New  York,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  years  ago. 

James  Duane,  appointed  to  the  position  by 
Governor  Clinton,  was  the  first  post-revolution- 
ary Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Richard 
Varick  served  as  Recorder,  and  in  1789  suc- 
ceeded Duane  in  the  Mayoralty,  which  office  he 
held  for  eleven  consecutive  years.  The  City 
Council  was  composed  of  six  Aldermen  and  six 
Assistants.  In  the  days  of  our  Dutch  forefathers 
they  gave  these  functionaries  the  more  pictur- 
esque titles  of  Burgomasters  and  Schepens. 
These  were  our  City  Fathers  in  1783  and  1784  : 

ALDERMEN  ASSISTANTS 

John  Broome  Daniel  Phenix 

William  Gilbert  Abraham  Van  Gelder 

Abraham  P.  Lott  Jeremiah  Wool 

Thomas  Ivers  Samuel  Johnson 

Thomas  Randall  John  De  Peyster 

Benjamin  Blagge  Henry  Shute 

The  Legislature  of  the  State,  with  Lieutenant 
Governor  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt  as  presiding 

32 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

officer,  met  in  New  York  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1784,  and  for  a  few  months  this  city  was  the 
seat  of  the  State  Government.*  Five  years  later 
it  was,  also,  for  a  brief  period,  the  Capital  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  the  hope  and  ex- 
pectation that  it  would  continue  so  to  be,  the 
"  Government  House  "  was  built  for  a  presiden- 
tial residence  on  the  site  of  old  Fort  George. f 
In  front  of  it  in  Bowling  Green  still  stood  the 
battered  pedestal  of  the  leaden  equestrian 
statue  of  George  III,  erected  August  i6th,  1770, 
and  demolished  July  9th,  1776,  by  the  "Sons 
of  Freedom,"  who, — with  some  inward  chuck- 
ling, we  imagine, — moulded  a  part  of  its  mater- 
ial into  forty-thousand-odd  musket  balls,  for  use 
against  his  Majesty's  forces. 

"  For  'tis  the  sport  to  have  the  engineer 
Hoist  with  his  own  petard." 

Fragments  of  this  statue,  which  still  retain 
traces  of  the  gold-leaf  with  which  it  was  covered, 
are  now  in  the  rooms  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society,  in  Second  Avenue.  They  were 
found,  April,  1871,  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Peter  S. 
Coley,  at  Wilton,  Connecticut,  whither,  it  is  to  be 
presumed,  they  had  been  transported  and  hidden 

*  Removed  to  Albany  1784.   f  Ordered  razed  in  1790. 

33 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

for  safety,  by  some  staunch  adherent  of  the  King. 
The  marble  slab  of  the  pedestal  upon  which  the 
statue  stood  is  also  in  possession  of  the  same 
Society.* 

The  Government  House "  was  the  fmest 
mansion  in  the  city  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  built  of  red  brick,  with  Ionic  columns. 
Before  its  completion,  the  seat  of  Government 
was  removed  to  Philadelphia,  and  the  building 
was  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  Governors  of 
the  State. t  In  1799  it  became  the  Custom-house, 
and,  in  1 8 1 5  was  taken  down.  The  Bowling  Green 
block  of  red  brick  houses,  which  were  among  the 
choicest  residences  in  the  city  before  they  were 
transformed  into  trans-Atlantic  steamship  com- 
panies' offices,  occupied  the  site,  until  it  was  de- 
molished a  few  years  ago,  to  clear  the  ground 
for  the  magnificent  granite  structure,  the  United 
States  Custom-house,  now  in  course  of  erection. 
Surely  here  we  have  an  exemplification  of  the 
truism  that  all  things  alter  with  the  course  of 
years,  and  also  that  history  repeats  itself. 

The  whole  number  of  electoral  votes  cast  for 
the  first  President  of  the  United  States,  was 

*See  Appendix. 

t Occupied  by  Governors  George  Clinton  and  John  Jay. 

34 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

sixty-nine,  all  for  General  Washington.  Thirty- 
four  were  given  for  John  Adams  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent. The  fourth  of  March,  1789,  had  been 
appointed  for  the  meeting  of  Congress,  but  a 
quorum  of  that  body  did  not  assemble  until  a 
month  later,  when  the  votes  were  opened  and 
counted.  A  special  Messenger — Charles  Thom- 
son, Secretary  of  Congress — was  dispatched  to 
Mount  Vernon,  with  a  letter  from  the  President 
of  the  Senate  to  Washington,  conveying  the  offi- 
cial notice  of  his  election,  calling  him  again  to 
enter  upon  public  life,  to  relinquish  the  over- 
sight of  the  tree-  and  shrub-planting  and  the 
systematic  husbandry  he  was  practising,  and  to 
turn  his  back  upon  the  pastoral  life  to  which 
he  was  attached,  and  in  which  he  expected  in 
tranquillity  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days. 

It  was  a  far  call,  in  1789,  from  New  York  to 
Mount  Vernon,  and  the  condition  of  the  clay- 
roads  of  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Vir- 
ginia, in  the  spring  of  the  year,  can  be  better 
imagined  than  described.  It  required  about  as 
many  days  then,  for  the  journey,  as  it  now  con- 
sumes hours. 

There  were  no  railroad  time-tables  to  be  con- 
sulted, no  "  Bureau  of  Information"  to  be  in- 

35 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

terrogated,  by  Secretary  Thomson,  but  Christo- 
pher Colles'  "  Road  Surveys"  had  recently  been 
pubHshed,  and  the  Congressional  dispatch-bearer 
might  have  provided  himself  with  a  copy  of  these 
carefully  prepared  maps  to  guide  him  by  way 
of  Alexandria,  or  Pohick  church  to  "  General 
Washington's  Land  "  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Potomac  in  Fairfax  County,  Virginia. 

These  Road  Maps  of  Christopher  Colles,  few 
copies  of  which  are  now  extant,  were  engraved 
on  copper  by  C.  Tiebout  —  one  of  the  best 
engravers  of  the  time — on  a  scale  of  i  %  inches 
to  the  mile.  Mr.  Colles  enumerates  at  length, 
the  benefits  to  the  public  of  these  surveys  in 
his  "  Proposals  for  their  publication  in  1789." 
"  A  traveller  will  here,"  he  affirms,  "  find  so 
plain  and  circumstantial  a  description  of  the 
road  that  while  he  has  the  draft  with  him, 
it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  miss  his  way; 
he  will  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  the 
names  of  many  of  the  persons  who  reside 
upon  the  road  ;  if  his  horse  should  want  a 
shoe,  or  his  carriage  be  broke,  he  will  by  the 
bare  inspection  of  the  draft  be  able  to  de- 
termine whether  he  must  go  backward  or  for- 
ward to  a  blacksmith  shop  ;  persons  who  have 

36 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

houses  or  plantations  on  the  roadway  may  in 
case  they  want  to  let,  lease,  or  sell  the  same, 
advertise  in  the  public  newspapers  that  the 
place  is  marked  in  such  a  page  of  Colles'  Sur- 
vey of  the  roads  *  *  *  It  is  expected  many 
other  entertaining  and  useful  purposes  will  be 
discovered  when  the  surveys  come  into  general 
use." 

This  is  considerable  of  a  digression  from  our 
subject,  into  which,  we  have  been  led  by  our 
antiquarian  zeal,  and  our  interest  in  this  out- 
of-the-way  and  curious  book,  of  that  active  and 
enterprising  little  gentleman,  the  singular,  and 
gifted  character,  Christopher  Colles. 

Two  days  after  receiving  the  notification  of  his 
election,  on  the  14th  of  April,  1789,  Washing- 
ton left  Mount  Vernon,  and  arrived  in  New  York 
about  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  twenty- 
third,  after  what  might  properly  be  described 
as  a  triumphal  procession,  which  began  almost 
at  the  moment  he  passed  his  own  gates,  and 
ended  with  the  landing  from  his  gaily  trimmed 
barge  at  Murray's  Wharf,  foot  of  Wall  Street, 
near  the  City  Coffee  House,  amid  the  firing  of 
guns  from  the  Battery,  and  the  vessels  in  the  har- 
bor, the  ringing  of  church  and  other  bells,  music, 

37 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

singing,  and  ''wild  and  prolonged  cheers."  In 
the  evening  he  dined  with  Governor  Clinton,  and 
the  houses  of  the  citizens  were  illuminated  in 
honor  of  his  arrival.  Mrs.  Washington,  with 
her  grand-children,  Eleanor  and  George  Wash- 
ington Parke  Custis,  followed  her  husband  a 
month  later,  in  her  private  carriage,  attended 
by  a  small  escort  on  horseback,  and  was  met 
by  Washington  at  Elizabethtown  Point,  New 
Jersey,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  May,  with  the 
same  barge  used  by  him  on  the  twenty-third  of 
April,  manned  by  thirteen  skilled  pilots  dressed 
in  spotless  white. 


CHAPTER  III 


HE  first  bright  little  gamin  one 
meets  on  Wall  or  Nassau  Street, 
crying  the  daily  papers,  can 
tell  the  stranger  "  seeing  New 
York  "  that  Washington's  in- 
stallation as  President  of  the  United  States, 
took  place  in  the  balcony  of  Federal  Hall,  on 
the  thirtieth  of  April,  1789, — for  has  he  not 
read  and  pondered,  time  and  again,  the  story 
inscribed  on  the  granite  base  of  the  heroic- 
sized  bronze  statue  of  the  Father  of  his 
Country  "  which,  on  the  steps  of  the  Sub- 
Treasury,  stands  sentinel  over  the  spot  where 

39 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

the  oath  of  office  prescribed  by  the  Constitu- 
tion, was  administered  to  Washington  by  Chan- 
cellor Livingston  ?  The  only  relic  remaining  of 
this  historic  building,  so  far  as  the  writer  is 
aware,  is  a  piece  of  the  iron  railing  which  en- 
closed the  front  of  the  balcony — the  section  com- 
posed of  a  group  of  thirteen  arrows — now  in 
the  custody  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

The  Federal  edifice,  (not  hall),  was  the 
new  name  given  to  the  old  City  Hall,  which 
stood  in  Wall  Street  at  the  head  of  Broad 
Street,  after  it  had  been  altered,  enlarged  and 
adorned  by  the  noted  French  architect  and 
military  engineer.  Major  Peter  Charles  L'En- 
fant,  at  a  cost  of  over  $32,000,  defrayed  by 
popular  subscription.  Major  L'Enfant  served  in 
the  Continental  Army,  and  was  quite  severely 
wounded  at  the  siege  of  Savannah,  in  1779; 
he  designed  the  medal  of  the  Society  of  the 
Cincinnati,  of  which  select  organization  he  was 
a  member,  and  he  was  the  author  of  the  orig- 
inal plan  of  the  City  of  Washington.  A  very 
full  and  technical  description  of  the  Federal 
Edifice  at  New  York,  accompanies  a  copper- 
plate engraving  published  in  the  "  Columbian 
Magazine,"  Philadelphia,  August,  1789.  That 

40 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

it  was  considered  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in 
the  country  is  evidenced  by  the  fact,  that  en- 
gravings of  it  also  appeared  in  both  of  the  two 
other  contemporaneous  illustrated  magazines, 
the  "Massachusetts"  and  the  "New  York." 

The  ceremonies  of  Inauguration  Day  were 
ushered  in,  by  the  firing  of  the  national  salute, 
and  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  services,  with 
prayers  for  the  President,  were  held  in  the  va- 
rious churches.  About  mid -day,  the  proces- 
sion formed  at  the  President's  house  in  Cherry 
Street,  and  moved  through  Dock  (Pearl  Street) 
and  Broad  Street,  to  the  Federal  Edifice.  An 
escort  of  mounted  troops  and  infantry  led 
the  way,  and  when  they  reached  their  destina- 
tion formed  in  two  lines,  between  which  Wash- 
ington passed  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  where 
he  was  met  by  the  members  of  both  houses  of 
Congress. 

Immediately  after  he  had  taken  the  oath 
of  office,  in  the  gallery  overlooking  Broad 
Street,  Chancellor  Livingston  proclaimed  him 
President  of  the  United  States  and  was  an- 
swered by  the  discharge  of  thirteen  guns  and 
the  shouts  and  acclamations  of  the  crowds  that 
filled  the  streets  below  and  covered  the  sur- 


41 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

rounding  house  tops.  Amongst  this  multi- 
tude of  excited  spectators  was  Washington 
Irving,  then  a  child,  six  years  of  age,  in  charge, 
presumably,  of  the  same  quick-witted  and  canny 
Scotch  nurse,  of  whom  Pierre  M.  Irving,  in  the 
"  Life  and  Letters  of  his  distinguished  kins- 
man, relates  the  following  anecdote:  "  Struck 
with  the  enthusiasm  which  everywhere  greeted 
Washington  upon  his  arrival  in  New  York,  she 
followed  him  one  morning  into  a  shop,  and 
pointing  to  the  lad  who  had  scarcely  outgrown 
his  virgin  trousers:  *  Please,  your  honor,'  said 
she,  *  here's  a  bairn  was  named  after  you/ 
In  the  estimation  of  Lizzie,  for  so  she  was 
called,  few  claims  of  kindred  could  be  stronger 
than  this.  Washington  did  not  disdain  the  deli- 
cate afifmity,  and  placing  his  hand  on  the  head 
of  her  little  charge  gave  him  his  blessing." 

In  a  book  published  in  1889,  by  Mr.  Thomas 
E.  V.  Smith,  on  "  The  City  of  New  York,  in 
the  year  of  Washington's  Inauguration,"  which 
is  as  full  of  historical  facts  and  data  as  an  egg 
is  full  of  meat,  we  find  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  Washington's  appearance,  on  this  oc- 
casion, on  the  balcony  of  Federal  Hall: 

He  was  dressed  in  a  dark  brown  suit  with 
42 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

white  silk  stockings  and  silver  shoe  buckles, 
while  at  his  side  there  hung  a  steel-hilted  sword. 
The  clothes  which  he  wore  were  of  American 
manufacture,  ...  of  a  homespun  fabric  so  fme 
in  quality  as  to  be  universally  mistaken  for 
foreign  manufactured  superfine  cloth."  Mr. 
Smith  omits  to  mention  that  the  gilt  buttons 
upon  Washington's  coat  were  chased  with  the 
Arms  of  the  United  States,  by  William  Rollin- 
son,  whose  descendants  were,  until  a  few  years 
ago,  still  pursuing  the  avocation  of  engravers 
in  this  city.  Rollinson  refused  to  receive  com- 
pensation for  this  work,  "  declaring  that  he  was 
more  than  paid  by  having  had  the  honor  of 
working  for  such  a  man  on  such  an  occasion." 
Rollinson  was  at  first  a  silversmith  engraver, 
and  his  first  attempt  at  copper-plate  engraving 
was  a  profile  portrait,  done  in  stipple,  of  the 
man  for  whom,  and  for  whose  high  office,  he 
expressed  in  this  practical  way  his  esteem  and 
admiration.  William  Dunlap,  from  whose  "His- 
tory of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  United  States" 
we  gather  this  information,  relates  another  in- 
teresting fact  in  connection  with  Mr.  Rollinson, 
namely,  that  he  was  the  inventor  of  a  machine 
to  rule  waved  lines  for  engraving  margins  to 

43 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

bank  notes.  We  presume  that  the  great  Amer- 
ican Bank  Note  and  Bond  Engraving  Companies 
of  the  present  day,  with  their  intricate  lathes 
and  other  ingenious  time-  and  labor-saving  me- 
chanical devices,  have  taken  due  notice  of  this 
circumstance. 

The  same  writer  from  whom  we  quote  in 
the  beginning  of  the  previous  paragraph,  is  our 
authority  for  the  story  of  the  animated  dis- 
cussion which  arose  in  regard  to  Washington's 
title,  upon  assuming  the  office  of  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  the  United  States.  "The  Senate  wished 
to  call  him  *  His  Highness  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  Protector  of  their  Liberties,' 
while  the  House  refused  to  give  him  any  other 
title  than  that  used  by  the  Constitution — 'The 
President  of  the  United  States.'  Washington's 
own  desire  was  to  be  called  *  His  Mightiness 
the  President  of  the  United  States,'  and  he  is 
said  to  have  never  forgiven  Mr.  Muhlenberg, 
the  Speaker  of  the  House,  for  some  facetious 
remarks  concerning  that  title."  To  be  the 
first  President  of  the  United  States  might  not 
unreasonably  be  considered  honor  sufficient  for 
even  a  Washington. 

In  the  evening  of  Inauguration  Day,  a  dis- 

44 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

play  of  fireworks  took  place,  and  the  city  was 
brilliantly  illuminated.  The  following  account 
of  these  festivities  is  copied  from  an  extra 
sheet"  published  at  Lansingburgh,  New  York, 
May  6th,  1789,  which  came  to  the  writer  from 
the  Glen-Sanders  Mansion,  at  Scotia,  N.  Y. 
This  copy  is  endorsed  upon  the  back  in  the 
handwriting  of  Peter  Edmund  Elmendorf,  (an 
aforetime  noted  Albany  lawyer)  "  King  Wash- 
ington's Speech,"  whether  in  jest,  or  in  sober 
earnest,  it  is  difficult  to  determine;  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  opinions  of  those  whom  the  writer 
has  consulted  is,  however,  that  the  endorse- 
ment is  to  be  literally  understood. 

"  In  the  evening  was  exhibited  under  the  di- 
rection of  Col.  Bauman,  a  very  ingenious  and 
splendid  show  of  fireworks,  the  various  kinds 
of  which  want  of  time  will  not  permit  us  to  par- 
ticularize. Between  the  fort  and  the  Bowling 
Green  stood  conspicuous,  a  superb  and  brilliant 
transparent  painting.  In  the  centre  of  which 
was  the  portrait  of  the  President,  represented 
under  the  emblem  of  fortitude;  on  his  right 
hand  Justice,  representing  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States;  and  on  his  left.  Wisdom  repre- 
senting the  House  of  Representatives.  The 

45 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Arms  of  the  United  States,  and  several  figures 
and  decorations  were  painted  with  great  taste 
and  judgment  in  the  front  of  the  structure. 
The  (French  Minister)  Count  de  Moustier's 
house  was  elegantly  illuminated,  and  a  variety 
of  transparent  paintings  were  exhibited.  His 
Excellency  Don  Diego  de  Gardoqui's  (the  Span- 
ish Charge  d'Affaires)  house  also  displayed  a 
great  assemblage  of  beautiful  figures,  executed 
in  the  most  masterly  and  striking  manner,  and 
which  attracted  considerable  attention  from  the 
vast  multitude  of  citizens  assembled  to  view 
the  various  scenes  of  the  evening." 

The  Public  Ball  and  Entertainment  offered 
to  Washington  by  the  subscribers  of  the  Danc- 
ing Assembly,  was  intended  to  be  held  on  the 
evening  of  Inauguration  Day,  but  was  post- 
poned in  the  hope  and  expectation  that  Mrs. 
Washington  would  shortly  arrive,  and  grace  it 
with  her  presence.  When  it  was  ascertained 
that  the  President's  "  consort  "  would  not 
reach  New  York  until  near  the  end  of  the  month, 
the  Ball  was  given  on  Thursday,  the  seventh  of 
May.*    It  took  place,  probably,  in  the  De 

*  Reported  in  "  The  New  York  Packet  "  of  Saturday,  May  9, 
1789. 

46 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Lancey  house  on  Broadway  corner  of  Thames 
Street,  where  the  Boreel  building  now  stands. 
This  building  was  opened  in  1754  as  a  tavern, 
by  Edward  Willett  under  the  name  of  the 
*'  Province  Arms,"  and  was  provided  with  a 
large  ball-room  where  concerts  were  given,  and 
subscription  balls  were  held.  In  1793,  the 
"  City  Hotel  "  was  erected  upon  this  site  and 
remained  for  many  years  the  largest  and  finest 
public-house  in  the  city.  In  1828  it  became 
the  property  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  who  pur- 
chased it  for  $121,000. 

Views  of  this  building  are  given  in  both 
Bourne's  and  Peabody's  Collections  of  Views 
in  New  York  City,  published  in  1831,  but  no 
picture  of  the  De  Lancey  house  has  yet  been 
found,  and  Mr.  Edward  Floyd  De  Lancey,  whose 
death  in  the  eighty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  is  an- 
nounced as  we  pen  these  lines,  searched  for  it 
many  years. 

The  newspapers  of  the  day,  "  The  New  York 
Packet  "  and  the  "  New  York  Gazette,"  were 
rather  chary  of  the  space  in  their  columns  de- 
voted to  local  affairs,  and  to  society  news  and 
gossip,  but  they  find  room  for  a  paragraph 
descriptive  of  the  first  Presidential  Inaugura- 

47 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON    KNEW  IT 

tion  Ball  and  furnish  a  list  of  the  men  distin- 
guished in  military  and  civil  life,  who  hon- 
ored it  with  their  presence,  and  of  the  ladies, 
whose  "  fme  appearance  gave  lustre  and  bril- 
liancy to  the  occasion."  Fans,  with  ivory  sticks 
and  paper  covers,  decorated  with  a  medallion 
portrait  of  Washington,  made  in  Paris  for  the 
Ball,  were  distributed  among  the  ladies.  Some 
of  these  dainty  souvenirs  of  this  notable  occa- 
sion are  still  carefully  preserved  and  fondly 
treasured  as  family  heir-looms.  The  Ball  was 
quite  a  late  affair,  for  the  Company,  we  are  in- 
formed, did  not  retire  until  about  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  after  having  spent  a  most  agree- 
able evening. 

Mrs.  Martha  J.  Lamb,  the  best,  with  all  her 
minor  faults,  of  our  local  historians,  dearly 
loved  to  descant  upon  the  high  society  of  New 
York.  She  is,  apparently,  never  better  pleased 
than  when  she  leads  us  through  a  forest  of  gen- 
ealogical trees,  or  throws  the  lime-light  upon 
the  stage  where  the  belles  and  beaux,  the  dames 
and  squires,  of  by-gone  days,  fill  again  the  roles, 
and  play  the  parts,  that  once  were  theirs.  The 
Washington  Inauguration  Ball  afforded  her  an 
opportunity  not  to  be  neglected. 

48 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

"  The  President/'  she  writes,  "  dined  with 
Chancellor  Livingston,  with  Secretary  and  Mrs. 
Jay,  with  General  Clinton  and  with  Hamilton, 
at  his  pleasant  home  in  Wall  Street  during  the 
week  following  the  inauguration."  On  the 
seventh  of  May  a  public  ball  was  given  in  his 
honour, which  is  thusdescribed  byawriterof  the 
day :  "The  collection  of  ladies  was  numerous  and 
brilliant,  and  dressed  with  consummate  taste  and 
elegance.  Mrs.  Washington  had  not  yet  reached 
the  City,  but  Mrs.  Jay  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  were 
among  those  present;  also  Lady  Stirling  and 
her  two  daughters.  Lady  Mary  Watts  and  Lady 
Kitty  Duer.  Mrs.  Peter  Van  Brugh  Livingston, 
Lord  Stirling's  sister,  Mrs.  Clinton,  Mrs.  Mayor 
Duane,  Mrs.  James  Beekman,  Lady  Temple, 
Lady  Christina  Grififm,  Mrs.  Chancellor  Living- 
ston, Mrs.  Richard  Montgomery,  Mrs.  John 
Langdon,  Mrs.  Elbridge  Gerry,  Mrs.  Livingston, 
of  Clermont,  the  Misses  Livingston,  Mrs.  Wil- 
liam S.  Smith,  daughter  of  the  Vice-President, 
the  beautiful  bride  of  James  Homer  Maxwell, 
who  as  Miss  Van  Zandt  had  repeatedly  danced 
with  Washington  while  the  army  was  at  Morris- 
town,  Mrs.  Edgar,  Mrs.  McComb,  Mrs.  Dalton, 
the  Misses  Bayard,  Madame  de  Brehan,  Madame 

49 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

de  la  Forest,  and  Mrs.  Bishop  Provost.  The 
President,  the  Vice-President,  the  Secretaries 
of  State  and  War,  the  majority  of  both  houses 
of  Congress,  the  Governor  of  New  York,  the 
Mayor  of  the  City,  the  Chancellor,  the  French 
and  Spanish  Ministers,  Baron  Steuben,  Col. 
Duer,  and  a  great  many  other  distinguished 
guests  rendered  the  occasion  memorable.  The 
company  numbered  over  three  hundred.  Wash- 
ington was  the  Star  of  the  evening.  He  danced 
in  two  cotillions.  His  partners  were  Mrs.  Peter 
Van  Brugh  Livingston  and  Mrs.  Hamilton.  He 
also  danced  a  minuet  with  Mrs.  Maxwell." 

''On  Thursday,  May  14th,  a  magnificent  ball 
was  given  by  De  Moustier,  the  French  Minister." 

Brissot  de  Marville,*  the  noted  French  author, 
editor,  and  publicist,  visited  this  country  in  the 
year  1788,  and  has  left  us  an  entertaining  de- 
scription! of  New  York  and  its  Society  in  the 

*  Brissot  de  Marville  (Jean  Pierre),  a  Girondist  and  Deputy  to 
the  National  Convention  of  France,  was  born  in  1754  nearChartres, 
in  the  village  of  Quarville,  from  which  place  he  later  took  his 
name,  anglicising  its  form.  He  visited  England  and  the  United 
States  in  1788  and  returned  to  France  just  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution — was  arrested  and  on  the  thirty-first  of  October,  1793, 
was  guillotined. 

f  "  New  Travels  in  the  United  States  of  America,"  by  J.  P. 
Brissot  de  Marville.    2  volumes,  8vo,  London,  1797. 


50 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

year  prior  to  the  I  nauguration  of  President  Wash- 
ington, from  which  we  make  the  following  ex- 
tract : 

The  presence  of  Congress  with  the  diplo- 
matic body,  and  the  concourse  of  strangers 
contributes  much  to  extend  here  the  ravages 
of  luxury.  The  inhabitants  are  far  from  com- 
plaining at  it ;  they  prefer  the  splendor  of  wealth, 
and  the  show  of  enjoyment,  to  the  simplicity 
of  manners,  and  the  pure  pleasures  resulting 
from  it.  The  usage  of  smoking  has  not  disap- 
peared in  this  town,  with  the  other  customs  of 
their  fathers,  the  Dutch.  They  smoke  cigars, 
which  come  from  the  Spanish  islands;  they  are 
leaves  of  tobacco,  rolled  in  form  of  a  tube,  of 
six  inches  long,  which  are  smoked  without  the 
aid  of  any  instrument.  This  usage  is  revolting 
to  the  French.  It  may  appear  disagreeable  to 
the  women,  by  destroying  the  purity  of  the 
breath.  The  philosopher  condemns  it  as  it  is 
a  superfluous  want. 

"  It  has,  however,  one  advantage:  it  accus- 
toms to  meditation,  and  prevents  loquacity. 
The  smoker  asks  a  question:  the  answer  comes 
two  minutes  after,  and  it  is  well  founded.  The 
cigar  renders  to  a  man  the  service  that  the  phil- 

51 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

osopher  drew  from  a  glass  of  water  which  he 
drank  when  he  was  angry. 

"  If  there  is  a  town  on  the  American  conti- 
nent where  the  EngHsh  luxury  displays  its 
follies,  it  is  New  York,  you  will  fmd  here  the 
English  fashions.  In  the  dress  of  the  women 
you  will  see  the  most  brilliant  silks,  gauzes,  hats, 
and  borrowed  hair.  Equipages  are  rare;  but 
they  are  elegant.  The  men  have  more  sim- 
plicity in  their  dress;  they  disdain  gewgaws, 
but  they  take  their  revenge  in  the  luxury  of  the 
table.  Luxury  forms  already,  in  this  town,  a 
class  of  men  very  dangerous  in  society — I  mean 
bachelors.  The  expense  of  women  causes  mat- 
rimony to  be  dreaded  by  men." 

In  corroboration  of  these  apparently  ex- 
aggerated statements  of  the  French  traveller 
and  critic  we  have  only  to  turn  to  the  musty 
flies  of  "  The  New  York  Gazette,"  where,  under 
date  of  May  15th,  1789,  we  fmd  the  following: 

**NEW  FASHIONS  FROM  PARIS  FOR  THE  LADIES 

The  only  variety  since  our  last  appears  in  the 
three  following  dresses. 

First.  A  plain  celestial  blue  satin  gown, 
with  a  white  satin  petticoat.    On  the  neck  a 

52 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

very  large  Italian  gauze  handkerchief,  with 
satin  border  stripes.  The  head  dress  is  a  pouf 
of  gauze,  in  the  form  of  a  globe,  the  crenaure 
or  headpiece  of  which  is  made  of  white  satin, 
having  a  double  wing  in  large  plaits,  and 
trimmed  with  a  large  wreath  of  artificial  roses, 
which  falls  from  the  left  at  top  to  the  right  at 
bottom  in  front  and  behind  contrary. 

The  hair  is  dressed  all  over  in  detached  curls, 
four  of  which  in  two  ranks,  fall  on  each  side 
the  neck,  and  behind  it  is  relieved  in  a  floating 
chignon. 

The  second  dress  is  a  Pierrot  made  of  grey  In- 
dian tafTaty,  with  dark  stripes  of  the  same  col- 
our, having  two  collars,  one  yellow  and  the  other 
white,  both  trimmed  with  a  blue  silk  fringe, 
and  a  reverse  trimmed  in  the  same  manner. 
Under  this  Pierrot  they  wear  a  yellow  corset 
or  shapes  with  large  blue  cross  stripes.  With 
this  dress  they  have  a  hat  a  I'Espagnole,  made 
of  white  satin,  having  a  large  white  satin  band, 
put  on  in  the  manner  the  wreath  of  roses  is  on 
the  hat  of  the  first  dress;  but  this  hat  is  re- 
lieved on  the  left  side,  and  has  two  very  large 
handsome  cockades,  one  at  the  top,  the  other 
at  the  bottom,  where  it  is  relieved. 

53 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

On  the  neck  they  wear  a  very  large  plain 
gauze  handkerchief,  the  ends  of  which  are  hid 
under  the  shape.  Round  the  bottom  of  the 
Pierrot  is  pinned  a  sort  of  frill  a  la  Henry  IV, 
made  of  gauze,  cut  in  points  round  the  edge. 

The  third  and  newest  dress  is  a  Pierrot  and 
petticoat,  both  made  of  the  same  sort  of  grey 
striped  silk,  and  trimmed  all  round  with  gauze, 
cut  in  points  at  the  edges  in  the  manner  of  the 
Herrisons. 

These  Herrisons  are  now  nearly  the  sole 
trimmings  used  for  the  Pierrots,  Caracos  and 
petticoats  of  the  Parisian  ladies,  either  made 
of  ribbons  or  Italian  gauze,  but  chiefly  the 
latter. 

With  this  dress  the  ladies  wear  a  large  gauze 
neck  handkerchief,  with  four  satin  stripes  round 
its  borders  ;  two  of  which  are  very  broad,  and 
the  other  less.  These  handkerchiefs  are  an  ell 
and  a  half  square. 

The  head  dress  is  a  plain  gauze  cap,  made  in 
the  form  of  those  worn  by  the  elders,  or  ancients 
in  the  nunneries. 

Shoes  are  celestial  blue  satin,  with  rose  colour 
rosettes. 

Muffs  are  not  yet  left  off,  those  most  worn  are 
54 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Siberian  wolf-skin,  with  a  large  knot  of  scarlet 
ribbon. 

THE  GENTLEMEN 

In  undress  wear  a  very  long  blue  riding  coat, 
with  plain  steel  buttons,  made  full  like  a  bomb 
or  globe. 

A  scarlet  waistcoat  and  yellow  Kersemere 
breeches,  quite  plain  without  embroidery  at  the 
knees  or  buttonholes. 

With  this  dress  they  wear  gaiters  made  of 
black  polished  leather,  which  reach  half-way 
up  the  thigh,  and  the  shoes  are  tied  with  strings. 

Jocky  hats  of  a  middling  height  in  their 
crown,  and  the  round  very  narrow.  The  hair 
is  dressed  on  the  sides  in  two  long  curls,  and 
behind  tied  in  a  queue. 

Round  the  neck  a  very  full  muslin  cravat, 
the  ends  of  which  are  tied  in  a  large  knot  be- 
fore. 

The  muff  is  black  bear  skin,  with  a  large 
knot  of  scarlet  ribbon  attached  to  it." 

John  Ramage,  the  noted  miniature  painter, 
appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  leaders  of 
fashion.  His  gorgeous  apparel  is  thus  described 
by  Dunlap  in  his  Arts  of  Design:  "  "A  scarlet 
coat  with  mother-of-pearl  buttons — a  white  silk 

55 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

waistcoat  embroidered  with  colored  flowers  — 
black  satin  breeches  and  paste  knee  buckles 
— white  silk  stockings — large  silver  buckles  in 
his  shoes  —  a  small  cocked  hat,  covering  the 
upper  portion  of  his  well  powdered  locks,  leav- 
ing the  curls  at  the  ears  displayed  —  a  gold- 
headed  cane  and  gold  snuff  box,  completed  his 
costume.  When  the  writer  (Mr.  Dunlap)  re- 
turned from  Europe  in  1787,  Mr.  Ramage  in- 
troduced to  him  a  second  wife  ;  but  he  was 
changed,  and  evidently  declining  through  fast 
living,''  the  consequence,  probably,  of  too 
free  indulgence  in  "  shrub,"  the  favorite  tipple, 
and  in  "old  particular"  and  "London  Market 
Madeira,"  the  most  highly  esteemed  and  popular 
wine  of  the  age.  The  foppish  artist  evidently 
failed  to  follow  the  example  of  simple  living  said 
to  have  been  set  by  the  Head  of  the  Nation,  who, 
we  are  asked  to  believe,  generally  dined  on  one 
dish  only,  preferably  a  boiled  leg  of  mutton,  and 
offered  his  guests,  after  the  dessert,  but  a  single 
glass  of  wine.  The  Prince  de  Broglie,  however, 
in  the  records  of  his  visits  to  America  tells  a  dif- 
ferent story,  and,  speaking  from  his  own  experi- 
ence says,  that  Washington,  when  he  found  his 
company  at  dinner  entertaining,  lingered  over 

56 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

the  dessert,  eating  "  enormously  "  of  nuts,  and 
from  time  to  time  giving  sundry  healths,  ac- 
cording to  the  EngHsh  and  American  custom. 
The  Prince  probably  met,  and  dined  with  the 
President  when  he  was  in  full  and  flowing  health 
and  spirits,  and  not  during  his  long  convalescence 
from  the  severe  illness  which  in  the  summer  of 
1789,  confined  him  six  weeks  to  his  bed,  and 
which,  for  a  few  days,  it  was  feared  would  prove 
fatai. 

From  this  illness  Washington,  although  only 
in  his  fifty-seventh  year,  never  fully  recovered, 
and  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  as  well  as  from 
a  desire  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  first  military 
campaign  and  meet  again  some  of  his  old  com- 
rades in  arms,  he  made  in  the  autumn,  during 
the  recess  of  Congress,  a  tour  through  the  East- 
ern States,  accompanied  by  his  Secretaries,  Mr. 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Lear.  He  travelled  in  his 
own  carriage,  and  during  his  absence  of  about  a 
month,  visited  New  Haven,  Hartford,  Boston, 
Salem,  Newburyport,  and  Portsmouth  in  New 
Hampshire,  everywhere  greeted  as  on  his  jour- 
ney from  Mount  Vernon  to  New  York,  "with 
acclamations  of  joy  and  testimonies  of  respect 
and  veneration  by  men,  women  and  children  of 

57 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

all  classes,  who  assembled  from  far  and  near 
at  the  crossings  of  the  roads  and  other  public 
places  where  it  was  known  he  would  pass." 
The  journey,  his  biographers  agree  in  stating, 
was  in  all  respects  satisfactory  to  him  in  the 
proofs  it  afforded  of  the  strong  attachment  of 
the  people  to  himself  and  to  the  new  form  of 
government,  and  of  the  growth  and  prosperity 
of  the  country  in  every  direction.  The  effects 
of  the  war  he  found,  had  almost  entirely  dis- 
appeared. It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind,  however, 
that  Washington,  upon  this  journey,  travelled 
through  a  part  of  the  United  States  that  had 
known  less  than  its  share  of  the  ravages  of  the 
war  of  the  Revolution. 


CHAPTER  IV 


ASHINGTON'S  residence  for  the 
space  of  about  a  twelvemonth, 
was  the  "  Franklin"  House, 
(built  by  Walter  Franklin  in 
1770),  at  No.  3  Cherry  Street, 
near  the  junction  of  that  street  with  Pearl  on 
Franklin  Square.*  This  building  was  taken 
down  in  1856,  and  the  site  is  now  covered  by 
one  of  the  massive  granite  pillars  that  support 
the  Brooklyn  Bridge.  The  Cherry  Street  house 
was  occupied  by  Washington,  until  February 
23,  1790,  when  he  removed  to  the  Alexander 

*  Until  the  year  1817,  it  was  called  St.  George's  Square.  The 
name  was  then  changed  in  honor  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

59 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

McComb  house,  which  is  descrihed  as  a  'Tine  and 
commodious  mansion,"  but  the  stable  attached 
thereto  did  not  meet  Washington's  requirements, 
and  he  found  it  necessary  to  add  a  building  with 
twelve  single  stalls,  for  the  accommodation  of 
his  English-made,  ''canary-colored  coach,"  with 
its  team  of  four,  and  sometimes  six  "Virginia 
bays,"  and  his  various  other  equipages,  carriage 
and  saddle  horses.  The  annual  rental  of  the 
McComb  house  is  stated  to  have  been  $2,500,  but 
whether  it  was  computed  in  ''specie"  or  in 
New  York  currency,  the  writer  is  uninformed .  1 1 
may  be  inferred,  however,  that  it  was  reckoned 
in    hard  money." 

When  the  Franklin  house  was  being  de- 
molished in  1856,  Mr.  Benjamin  R.  Winthrop 
secured  some  of  the  timbers,  and  from  them  the 
"Washington  Chair,"  now  used  by  the  President 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  in  its  meet- 
ing room  on  Second  Avenue,  was  made,  and 
presented  to  the  Society  by  Mr.  Winthrop  in 
1857. 

The  McComb  house,  Washington's  second 
residence,  became,  later,  a  part  of  the  Mansion 
House,  or  Bunker's  Hotel,  No.  39  Broadway,  an 
engraving  of  which  building  forms  one  of  the 

60 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

interesting  and  beautifully  engraved  series  of 
"  Views  in  New  York "  published  by  G.  M. 
Bourne  in  1831. 

So  pressing  became  the  demands  of  visitors 
upon  the  time  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  that  he 
found  it  necessary  to  establish  rules  and  regula- 
tions for  their  reception,  and  the  entertainment 
of  company.  Every  Thursday,"  writes  Jared 
Sparks  in  his  life  of  Washington,  ''between  the 
hours  of  three  and  four  he  was  prepared  to  re- 
ceive such  persons  as  chose  to  call.  Foreign 
Ministers,  strangers  of  distinction,  and  citizens 
came  and  went  without  ceremony.  The  hour 
was  passed  in  free  conversation  on  promiscuous 
topics,  in  which  the  President  joined.  Every 
Friday  afternoon,  the  rooms  were  open  in  like 
manner  for  visits  to  Mrs.  Washington,  which 
were  on  a  still  more  sociable  footing,  and  at 
which  General  Washington  was  always  present. 
These  assemblages  were  in  the  nature  of  public 
levees,  and  they  did  not  preclude  such  visits  of 
civility  and  friendship,  between  the  President's 
family  and  others  as  is  customary  in  society.  On 
affairs  of  business,  by  appointment, — whether 
with  public  officers  or  private  citizens,  the  Presi- 
dent was  always  ready  to  bestow  his  time  and 

61 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

attention.  He  accepted  no  invitations  to  din- 
ner, but  invited  to  his  own  table,  foreign  Min- 
isters, officers  of  the  Government,  and  strangers, 
in  such  numbers  at  once,  as  his  domestic  estab- 
lishment would  accommodate.  On  these  occa- 
sions there  was  neither  ostentation  nor  restraint, 
but  the  same  simplicity  and  ease  with  which  his 
guests  had  been  entertained  at  Mount  Vernon. 
No  visits  were  received  on  Sundays.  In  the 
morning  he  uniformly  attended  Church  and  in 
the  afternoon  he  retired  to  his  private  apart- 
ment. The  evening  was  spent  with  his  family, 
and  then  an  intimate  friend  would  sometimes 
call,  but  promiscuous  company  was  not  ad- 
mitted." 

This  extract  from  "The  New  York  Gazette" 
of  May  4,  1789,  furnishes  a  similar  account  of 
the  rules  and  etiquette  established  by  the  Presi- 
dent. 

"  We  are  informed  that  the  President  has  as- 
signed every  Tuesday  and  Friday,  between  the 
hours  of  two  and  three  for  receiving  visits,  and 
that  visits  of  compliment  on  other  days  and 
particularly  on  Sundays  will  not  be  agreeable  to 
him. 

'Tt  seems  to  be  a  prevailing  opinion  that  so 
62 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

much  of  the  President's  time  will  be  engaged  by 
the  various  and  important  business  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  Constitution,  that  he  will  fmd 
himself  constrained  to  omit  returning  visits  or 
accepting  invitations  to  entertainments." 

In  1861,  Daniel  Huntington  painted  a  picture, 
well  known  through  the  engraving  of  it  by  A. 
H.  Ritchie,  for  whom  it  was  painted,  in  which  he 
depicts  one  of  Lady  Washington's  receptions. 
Mr.  Huntington  did  not  enjoy  the  exceptional 
opportunities  and  advantages  supplied  by 
royalty  to  Mr.  Edwin  A.  Abbey,  when  he  painted 
the  Coronation  scene  of  Edward  VII  and  the 
genial,  loved  and  respected  President  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Design  and  long  time 
President  of  the  Century  Association  was  obliged 
to  draw  upon  his  imagination  for  some  of  his 
facts,  but,  the  faces,  of  which  there  are  about 
seventy,  in  his  canvas,  are  likenesses  supplied 
by  oil  paintings,  miniatures,  and  the  living  de- 
cendants  of  the  men  and  women  represented  as 
present  on  the  occasion;  the  costumes  and  other 
accessories  are  carefully  studied,  and  it  is  alto- 
gether as  happily  conceived  and  executed  a 
"counterfeit  presentment"  of  the  Drawing- 
Room  of  the  First  Lady  in  the  Land,  as  we 

63 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

shall  in  all  probability  ever  obtain.  The  pic- 
ture is  large,  iiox  66  inches  in  size,  and  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  Hamilton  Club  of 
Brooklyn,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since  its 
purchase  at  the  A.  T.  Stewart  sale  in  1887. 

It  is  a  richly  costumed  company  that  Mr. 
Huntington  assembles  at  Lady  Washington's 
Levee,  but  adverse  criticism  of  his  composition 
in  this  respect  is  silenced  by  the  proof,  already 
presented  in  these  pages,  that  the  impoverished 
condition  of  the  country  consequent  upon  the 
war  had  in  a  measure  passed  away,  and  there 
were  dames  and  demoiselles  in  the  city  of  New 
York  in  1789  who  had  money  in  their  purses  to 
bestow  upon  dress  and  gewgaws,  furbelows  and 
feathers  late  from  Paris,  and  also  men  of  suffi- 
cient wealth  to  enable  them  to  copy  closely  the 
elaborate  and  costly  costumes  of  the  fops  and 
beaux  of  eighteenth-century  London. 

John  Adams,  the  Vice  President,  occupied  the 
historic  Richmond  Hill  house,  built  about  the 
year  1760  by  Abraham  Mortier,  the  British 
Paymaster.  General  Washington  made  it  his 
headquarters  in  1776,  and  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  it  was  tenanted  by  various  British 
General  Officers,  the  last  of  whom  was  General 

64 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

Sir  Guy  Carleton,  Commander-in-Chief.  Its 
last  occupant  was  Aaron  Burr.  In  this  house 
his  beautiful,  accompHshed,  ill-fated  daughter, 
Theodosia,  the  idol  of  her  father,  was  married  to 
Governor  Alston  of  South  Carolina,  and  from  it 
Burr  proceeded  to  his  duel  with  Alexander 
Hamilton,  in  the  woods  of  Weehawken,on  the 
I  ith  of  July,  1804.  Ten  days  later  Burr  left  it 
forever  and  stole  away  from  the  city  "on  a  dark 
cloudy  night"  to  escape  arrest  and  trial  for  wil- 
ful murder.  The  property  was  shortly  after- 
wards sold  by  Burr's  creditors,  to  John  Jacob 
Astor,  for  125,000. 

Richmond  Hill  house,  situated  on  the  Green- 
wich Road  at  about  the  present  Laight  Street, 
was  one  of  the  finest  country  residences  near  New 
York.  It  overlooked  the  Hudson  River  and  was 
a  pleasanter  location,  one  might  imagine,  than 
that  selected  by,  or  for  Washington,  on  the  East 
side  of  the  town,  but  we  may  be  prejudiced  in 
our  judgment  by  the  present  squalid  and  dilap- 
idated appearance  of  the  Cherry  Street  neigh- 
borhood, and  forget  that  in  Washington's  day, 
one  of  the  finest  residences  in  the  city — the 
Walton  house,  built  of  yellow  Holland  brick — 
lay  within  a  stone's  throw  of  No.  3  Cherry 

65 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

Street,  and  also  that  as  Water  Street  marked 
the  shore  line  of  the  East  River,  a  house  situated 
upon  Cherry  Street  commanded  an  extensive 
water  view,  and  a  pleasant  vista  beyond,  of 
the  green  hills  and  forests  of  Long  Island,  while 
below  it  lay  the  busiest  section  of  the  town.  By 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  wharves  and  slips 
were  located  on  this  side  of  the  city.  They  ex- 
tended from  the  Battery  to  the  foot  of  Catherine 
Street,  while  on  the  Hudson  River  front  only 
four  or  five  docks  are  shown  upon  the  map  of  the 
City  in  1789. 

The  principal  institutions  which  had  attained 
to  the  dignity  of  property  owners  when  Wash- 
ington made  this  city  his  dwelling  place,  were 
the  College  of  New  York*  (Columbia),  Samuel 
Johnson,  President,  and  the  New  York  Hos- 
pitalf  of  which  Richard  Morris  was  then  the 
Governor  and  President.  The  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  over  whose  deliberations  John 
Brome  presided,  was  established  before  the  war 
(May  I,  1769,  and  incorporated  by  Lieutenant 
Governor  Colden,  March  13,  1770),  but  it  had  no 
abiding-place  of  its  own  then,  nor  for  many  a 

*The  Royal  Charter  was  obtained  in  1754. 

t  Charter  granted  by  John,  Earl  of  Dunmore,  June  13,  1771. 

66 


THE 


CHARTER 

OF  THE 

COLLEGE 

O  F 

N  E  W-r  0  R  K, 


I  N 


AMERICA, 


Publtjhed  by  Order  of  His  Honour  the  Lieutenant 
Governor^  in  Council. 


N  E  W  -  r  0  R  K: 
Printed  and  Sold  by  J,  Parker  and  W.  Weyman,  at  the  New  Printing- 
office  in  Btaver-Street^  MDCCLIV. 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

long  year  thereafter.  It  wandered  around  the 
lower  part  of  the  city,  inconveniently  housed 
in  upper  rooms  until  November  ii,  1902,  when 
it  made  a  sudden  and  remarkable  advance, 
and  took  possession  of  the  palatial  structure, 
which  is  now  one  of  the  architectural  ornaments 
of  the  financial  quarter  of  New  York. 

The  following  statistics  in  relation  to  Colum- 
bia College  are  taken  from  a  memorandum 
in  the  back  of  a  copy  of  the  Statutes  of  the 
College,  printed  in  1785.  These  notes  are  in 
the  handwriting  of  either  William  Cochran,* 
a  member  of  the  College  Faculty,  or  of  Jedidiah 
Morse,  the  ''American  Geographer"  to  whom 
Cochran  presented  the  book. 

"  Columbia  Col. 

"  No.  of  students,  1787  37. 

Annual  Income  of  funds  £\,ooo. 

Building  contains  20  large  rooms  with  two 
studies  or  Bed  Rooms  to  each  together  with  a 
hall  and  Library  rooms.  Whole  building  about 
1 50  feet  long  and  about  27  feet  wide  (uncertain) 
two  ends  stand  N.  W.  &  S.  E.  on  the  Eastern 
bank  of  Hudsons  River.  No  Library  (destroyed 
in  the  War),  nor  Museum.    300  Guineas  worth 

*  Professor  of  Greek  and  Latin.  Appointed  1784,  resigned  1789. 

68 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

of  the  best  kind  of  Philosophical  Instruments. 
Salary  of  each  of  the  Professors  200  currency 
year  (  ?)  and  the  profits  of  the  Class  £1  year 
from  each  student." 

The  number  of  charitable  and  scientific  soci- 
eties existent  in  1789,  reflects  credit  upon  the 
New  York  of  that  day,  and  exhibits  no  lack  of 
public  spirit  or  of  humane  impulse  on  the  part 
of  its  citizens.  The  most  prominent  of  these 
Associations  was  the  New  York  Medical  Soci- 
ety, of  which  the  celebrated  physician  Dr.  John 
Bard  was  the  head.  Then  follows  ''The  Society 
for  Promoting  Useful  Knowledge,"  "The  Soci- 
ety for  the  relief  of  Distressed  Debtors,"  "The 
Society  for  the  Manumission  of  Slaves,"  and 
"The  Manufacturing  Society." 

The  social,  national  and  educational  soci- 
eties were  "The  Marine  Society,"  "The  Gen- 
eral Society  of  Mechanics  and  Tradesmen,"  * 
"The  Musical  Society,"  "  The  German  Society" 
and  "The  Society  of  the  Cincinnati,"  (of  both 
of  which  Baron  Steuben  was  President),"  St.  Pat- 
rick's," "St.  George's"  and  "St.  Tammany's" 
or  Columbian  Order.  This  last  named  being, 
as  we  are  informed  by  the  compiler  of  the  New 

*  Instituted  August  4,  1785. 

69 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

York  Directory  for  1789,  ''A  National  Society, 
consists  of  Americans  born,  who  fill  all  offi- 
ces, and  adopted  Americans  who  are  eligible  to 
the  honorary  posts  of  warrior  and  hunter.  It 
is  founded  on  the  true  principles  of  patriotism, 
and  has  for  its  motives.  Charity  and  brotherly 
love."  Its  officers  consist  of  one  grand  sachem, 
twelve  sachems,  one  treasurer,  one  secretary, 
one  doorkeeper,  it  is  divided  into  thirteen  tribes 
which  severally  represent  a  state;  each  tribe  is 
governed  by  a  sachem,  the  honorary  posts  in 
which  are  one  warrior  and  one  hunter." 

Among  other  good  works  in  which  it  engaged, 
this  Society  established  and  maintained  a 
museum  in  the  old  City  Hall  in  Wall  Street,  for 
the  purpose  of  collecting  and  preserving  every- 
thing relating  to  America,  likewise  every  pro- 
duction of  nature  or  art,  for  which  purpose  part 
of  the  funds  of  the  Society  were  appropriated. 
So  we  see  that,  whatever  of  a  term  of  reproach 
the  name  of  Tammany  has  come  to  be  in  these 
later  times,  in  its  inception,  and  for  many  years 
the  Society  was  respectability  itself.  In  its  an- 
nual list  of  members  the  names  of  many  of  our 
most  respectable  and  worthy  citizens  will  con- 
tinually be  found. 

70 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

The  New  York  Society  Library,  organized  in 
1754  and  chartered  by  Governor  Tryon  in  1772, 
was  the  sole  occupant  of  this  particular  field  of 
usefulness.  Banking  facilities  were  limited  to 
one  establishment,  the  Bank  of  New  York, 
Isaac  Roosevelt,  President,  which  began  busi- 
ness in  the  Walton  House,  June  9,  1784.  It  was 
a  bank  of  discount  and  deposit,  open  from  10  to 
I  in  the  forenoon  and  from  ^  to  ty  in  the  after- 
noon every  day  in  the  year  except  Sundays, 
Good  Friday,  and  all  legal  holidays. 

Only  one  insurance  company  was  in  exist- 
ence—  The  Mutual  Assurance  Company  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  John  Pintard,  Secretary, 
which  transacted  both  a  fire  and  a  marine  in- 
surance business.  The  Fire  Department  was  a 
volunteer  organization,  consisting  of  about  300 
men,  and  as  a  volunteer  organization  it  re- 
mained until  the  year  1865. 

The  Militia  under  his  Excellency,  George 
Clinton,  Commander-in-Chief,  and  the  Masonic 
Lodges  of  which  there  were  a  number,  complete 
the  list  of  the  various  Associations,  Institutions 
and  Societies,  that  occupied  the  time  and  atten- 
tion of  our  forbears  in  1789. 

William  Bradford,  New  York's  first  printer  had 

7^ 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

long  been  sleeping,  in  his  grave  in  Trinity  Church 
Yard,  but  he  had  left  successors  not  a  few,  and 
Washington,  if  he  so  wished,  could  have  had  six 
daily,  bi-weekly,  or  weekly  newspapers  left  upon 
his  door  step. 

First. — The  New  York  Packet.  Published 
every  Tuesday  and  Saturday,  by  Samuel  and 
John  Loudon,  Printers  to  the  State,  No.  5  Water 
Street,  between  the  Coffee  House  and  Old  Slip. 

Second. — The  New  York  Daily  Gazette.  Pub- 
lished by  J.  &  A.  M'Lean,  at  their  Printing  office, 
Franklin's  Head,  No.  41  Hanover  Square. 

Third. — The  New  York  Journal  and  Weekly 
Register.  Printed  and  published  by  Thomas 
Greenleaf,  at  the  Printing  Office,  No.  25  Water 
Street. 

Fourth. — The  Daily  Advertiser  (established 
in  1786,  and  the  first  paper  published  daily). 
Printed  by  Francis  Childs,  No.  190  Water  Street, 
Corner  of  King  Street. 

Fifth. — The  Morning  Post  and  Daily  Adver- 
tiser. Printed  and  published  by  Wm.  Morton  at 
his  Printing  Office,  231  Queen  Street. 

Sixth. — Gazette  of  the  United  States.  Edited 
and  published  Wednesday  and  Saturday  by 
John  Fenno,  No.  9  Maiden  Lane,  near  the  Oswe- 

72 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

go  Market,  N.  Y.  This  was  a  "National  paper 
published  at  the  seat  of  Government,"  and  fol- 
lowed the  Congress  to  Philadelphia. 

Hugh  Gaine's  "  New  York  Mercury,"  after  an 
existence  of  31  years,  expired  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  peace.  Gaine  continued  the  busi- 
ness of  a  printer,  book-seller  and  stationer,  and 
became  active  in  Municipal  affairs.  He  was 
one  of  the  Governors  of  the  New  York  Hospi- 
tal, a  Trustee  of  the  Society  Library  and  the 
Treasurer  of  the  St.  Patrick's  Society. 

James  Rivington,  King's  printer,"  at- 
tempted to  continue  his  paper,  ''The  Royal 
Gazette,"  after  the  evacuation,  under  the  title 
of  "The  New  York  Gazette  and  Universal  Ad- 
vertiser," but  the  paper  met  with  no  support, 
and  its  publication  almost  immediately  ceased. 

"The  New  York  Packet  and  the  American 
Advertiser,"  was  commenced  in  January,  1776, 
as  a  weekly  paper,  published  on  Thursdays,  and 
bore  the  imprint  "  Printed  by  Samuel  Loudon 
in  Water  Street,  between  the  Coffee  House  and 
the  Old  Slip."  During  the  war  it  was  published 
at  Fishkill-on-the-Hudson.  After  the  return  of 
peace  it  was  again  printed  in  this  city,  changed 
to  a  daily  paper,  and  continued  several  years. 

73 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

"The  New  York  Journal  or  General  Adver- 
tiser/' printed  and  published  by  John  Holt,  near 
the  Exchange  *'was  a  strong  and  constant  ad- 
vocate of  the  American  cause."  When  the  Brit- 
ish took  possession  of  the  City  in  1776,  Holt  re- 
moved to  Kingston  (Esopus)  and  when  that 
town  was  burned  by  the  British  in  October, 
1777,  he  moved  on  with  his  press  to  Pough- 
keepsie,  where  he  continued  the  publication  of 
the  Journal  until  the  end  of  the  war. 

In  the  autumn  of  1783,  Holt's  paper  was  again 
printed  in  New  York,  with  the  title  of  "The  In- 
dependent Gazette  or  the  New  York  Journal  Re- 
vised." In  January,  1784,  Holt  died,  and  the 
paper  was  continued  by  his  widow  and  a  relative 
Eleazer  Oswold,  until  January,  1787,  when  the 
paper  and  the  printing  materials  were  sold  to 
Thomas  Greenleaf,  who  made  the  establishment 
the  foundation  of  two  journals,  one  a  weekly,  for 
country  circulation,  the  other  a  daily  issue  for  the 
City.  The  last  named  appeared  under  the  head- 
ing of  "The  New  York  Journal  and  Daily  Patri- 
otic Register."  1 1  was  later  changed  to  a  weekly 
paper.  Greenleaf  continued  these  newspapers 
until  he  fell  a  victim,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  to 
the  Yellow  Fever  epidemic  in  New  York  in  1798. 

74 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

In  December,  1790,  Congress  removed  to  Phil- 
adelphia,* and  the  name  and  titles  of  George 
Washington,  Esq.,  —  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  thereof,  disappear  from  the  New  York 
Directory.  Our  city  enjoyed  the  distinction  of 
having,  as  a  resident,  the  Chief  Executive  of  the 
Nation  for  less  than  two  years,  and  never  realized 
her  dream  of  becoming  the  Capital  of  the  Repub- 
lic. But  a  wider  distinction — that  of  the  chief 
city  of  a  hemisphere— came  to  her  in  the  natural 
course  of  events — and  with  this  laurel  leaf,  we 
must  be,  and  are  contented.  No  Knickerbocker 
"to  the  manner  born,"  has  ever  lost  sleepo' nights 
over  the  question  of  his  city's  future  consequence 
and  state,  and  in  this  paean,  sung  in  its  praise  by 
an  early  nineteenth-century  writer,  his  fellow  cit- 
izens we  are  sure  joined  with  one  and  full  accord. 

*'In  the  inevitable  certainty  of  coming  events, 
we  can  hardly  estimate  too  high  the  greatness 
which  awaits  New  York.  Our  vast  continent 
teeming  with  undeveloped  richness  will  be  ad- 
vancing for  centuries  in  improvement.  Our 
city  the  grand  outlet  of  its  immense  produce  and 

*  Philadelphia  remained  the  seat  of  Government  until  1801, 
when  it  was  removed  to  Washington. 

75 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

the  main  channel  through  which  from  all  the 
world,  its  unlimited  wants  must  be  supplied, 
will  increase  in  mightiness  and  size,  and  the  arts 
and  sciences  brightening  in  the  train  of  wealth, 
must  render  it  through  time  the  Western  rival 
of  the  great  commercial  emporium  of  Europe, 
not  merely  in  its  wide  extent,  but  in  the  splendor 
of  decoration  and  universal  interest  which  dis- 
tinguishes the  modern  Tyre/' 

The  distinguished  author  upon  whose  head 
when  a  little  lad  the  great  Washington  laid  his 
hand  in  benediction,  pictures  for  us  the  future 
of  New  York  in  a  still  more  poetic  fashion.* 

''And  the  sage  Oloffe  dreamed  a  dream — and 
lo  the  good  St.  Nicholas  came  riding  over  the 
tops  of  the  trees,  in  that  self-same  waggon 
wherein  he  brings  his  yearly  presents  to  chil- 
dren; and  he  came  and  descended  hard  by  where 
the  heroes  of  Communipaw  had  made  their  late 
repast.  And  the  shrewd  Van  Kortlandt  knew 
him  by  his  broad  hat,  his  long  pipe,  and  the  re- 
semblance which  he  bore  to  the  figure  on  the 
bow  of  the  *  Goede  Vrouw.'  And  he  lit  his  pipe 
by  the  fire,  and  he  sat  himself  down  and  smoked ; 
and  as  he  smoked,  the  smoke  from  his  pipe 

*  Knickerbocker's  History  of  New  York.  Chap.  IV.  Book  II. 

76 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

ascended  into  the  air  and  spread  like  a  cloud 
over  his  head.  And  the  sage  Oloffe  bethought 
him,  and  he  hastened  and  climbed  up  to  the  top 
of  one  of  the  tallest  trees,  and  saw  that  the  smoke 
spread  over  a  great  extent  of  country;  and  as 
he  considered  it  more  attentively,  he  fancied 
that  the  great  volume  of  smoke  assumed  a 
variety  of  marvellous  forms;  where  in  dim  ob- 
scurity he  saw  shadowed  out  palaces  and  domes 
and  lofty  spires,  all  of  which  lasted  but  a  mo- 
ment and  then  faded  away,  until  the  whole 
rolled  off  and  nothing  but  the  green  woods  were 
left.  And  when  St.  Nicholas  had  smoked  his 
pipe,  he  twisted  it  in  his  hat  band,  and  laying 
his  fmger  beside  his  nose  gave  the  astonished 
Van  Kortlandt  a  very  significant  look;  then 
mounting  his  waggon,  he  returned  over  the  tree 
tops  and  disappeared. 

"  And  Van  Kortlandt  awoke  from  his  sleep 
greatly  instructed,  and  he  aroused  his  com- 
panions and  related  to  them  his  dream;  and  in- 
terpreted it  that  it  was  the  will  of  St.  Nicholas 
that  they  should  settle  down  and  build  the  city 
here.  And  that  the  smoke  of  the  pipe  was  a 
type  how  vast  should  be  the  extent  of  the  city; 
inasmuch  as  the  volumes  of  its  smoke  should 


77 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

spread  over  a  vast  extent  of  country  ;  ^  ^  ^ 
And  the  people  lifted  up  their  voices  and  blessed 
the  good  St.  Nicholas,  and  from  that  time  forth 
the  sage  Van  Kortlandt  was  held  in  more  hon- 
our than  ever  for  his  great  talent  of  dreaming, 
and  was  pronounced  a  most  useful  citizen  and  a 
right  good  man — when  he  was  asleep." 

Mynherr  Van  Kortlandt  was  not — as  events 
have  shown — the  remarkably  prophetic  dreamer 
his  neighbors  imagined,  and  would  himself  ad- 
mit the  fact,  could  his  shade  revisit  the  Island 
of  Manhattan  in  this  Year  of  Grace  1905  and 
note  the  length,  height  and  depth  of  the  city 
which  has  risen  to  its  present  grandeur,  from 
the  little  town  of  less  than  twenty-five  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  where  the  "  Father  of  his 
Country  "  for  a  brief  period  made  his  home. 


APPENDIX 


Contents 


PAGE 


I  Description  of  the  Federal  Edifice 

at  New  York,  taken  from  the 
Columbian  Magazine,  Philadelphia, 
1789  81 

II  Account  of  the  marble  slab  upon 

which  stood  the  equestrian  statue 

of  George  III  in  Bowling  Green  87 

III  Chronological  table       ...  89 


I 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  FEDERAL  EDIFICE  AT 
NEW  YORK* 

|.HE  building  is  situated  at  the  end  of 
^  Broad  Street,  where  its  front  appears 
^  to  great  advantage.  The  basement 
story  is  Tuscan  and  is  pierced  with  seven  open- 
ings; four  massy  pillars  in  the  center  support 
four  Doric  columns  and  a  pediment.  The  frieze 
is  ingeniously  divided  to  admit  thirteen  stars  in 
the  metopes;  these  with  the  American  Eagle  and 
other  insignia  in  the  pediment,  and  the  tablets 
over  the  windows  filled  with  the  thirteen  arrows 
and  the  olive  branch  united,  mark  it  as  a  build- 
ing set  apart  for  national  purposes. 

After  entering  from  Broad  Street,  we  fmd  a 
plainly  finished  square  room,  flagged  with 
stone,  and  to  which  the  citizens  have  free  access; 

*The  Columbian  Magazine  (Philadelphia)  for  August,  1789, 

81 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

from  this  we  enter  the  vestibule  in  the  center  of 
the  pile,  which  leads  in  front  to  the  floor  of  the 
Representatives'  room,  or  real  Federal  Hall,  and 
through  two  arches  on  each  side,  by  a  public 
staircase  on  the  left,  and  by  a  private  one  on  the 
right,  to  the  Senate  Chamber  and  lobbies.  This 
vestibule  is  paved  with  marble;  is  very  lofty  and 
well  finished;  the  lower  part  is  of  a  light  rustic, 
which  supports  an  handsome  iron  gallery;  the 
upper  half  is  in  a  lighter  stile  and  isfinished  with  a 
skylight  of  about  twelve  by  eighteen  feet,  which 
is  decorated  with  a  profusion  of  ornament  in  the 
richest  taste.  Passing  into  the  Representatives' 
room,  we  find  a  spacious  and  elegant  apartment, 
sixty-one  feet  deep,  fifty-eight  wide  and  thirty- 
six  high,  without  including  a  coved  ceiling 
of  about  ten  feet  high.  This  room  is  of  an 
octangular  form;  four  of  its  sides  are  rounded  in 
the  manner  of  niches  and  give  a  graceful  variety 
to  the  whole.  The  windows  are  large  and  placed 
sixteen  feet  from  the  fioor;  all  below  them  is 
finished  with  plain  wainscot,  interrupted  only  by 
four  chimneys;  but  above  these  a  number  of 
Ionic  columns  and  pilasters,  with  their  proper 
entablature,  are  very  judiciously  disposed  and 
give  great  elegance.    In  the  panels  between  the 

82 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

windows  are  trophies  carved,  and  the  letters  U. 
S.  in  a  cypher,  surrounded  with  laurel.  The 
speaker's  chair  is  opposite  the  great  door  and 
raised  by  several  steps;  the  chairs  for  the  mem- 
bers are  ranged  semi-circularly  in  two  rows  in 
front  of  the  speaker.  Each  member  has  his 
separate  chair  and  desk.  There  are  two  galler- 
ies which  front  the  speaker;  that  below  projects 
fifteen  feet.  The  upper  one  is  not  so  large,  and 
is  intended  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  members 
for  the  accommodation  of  their  friends.  Be- 
sides these  galleries  there  is  a  space  on  the  floor, 
confined  by  a  bar,  where  the  public  are  admitted. 
There  are  three  small  doors  for  common  use,  be- 
sides the  great  one  in  the  front.  The  curtains 
and  chairs  in  this  room  are  of  light  blue  damask. 
It  is  intended  to  place  a  statue  of  Liberty  over 
the  speaker's  chair,  and  trophies  upon  each 
chimney. 

After  ascending  the  stairs  on  the  left  of  the 
vestibule  we  reach  a  lobby  of  nineteen  by  forty- 
eight  feet,  finished  with  Tuscan  pilasters;  this 
communicates  with  the  iron  gallery  before  men- 
tioned, and  leads  at  one  end  to  the  galleries  of 
the  Representatives'  room,  and  at  the  other  to 
the  Senate  Chamber.    This  room  is  forty  feet 

83 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

long,  thirty  wide,  and  twenty  high,  with  an 
arched  ceiHng;  it  has  three  windows  in  front  and 
three  back  to  correspond  to  them;  those  in  front 
open  into  a  gallery  twelve  feet  deep,  guarded 
with  an  elegant  iron  railing.  In  this  gallery  our 
illustrious  President,  attended  by  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives,  took  his  oath  of 
office  in  the  face  of  Heaven  and  in  presence  of  a 
large  concourse  of  people  assembled  in  front  of 
the  building. 

The  Senate  Chamber  is  decorated  with  pilas- 
ters, &c.,  which  are  not  of  any  regular  order;  the 
proportions  are  light  and  graceful;  the  capitals 
are  of  a  fanciful  kind,  the  invention  of  Major 
L'Enfant,  the  architect;  he  has  appropriated 
them  to  this  building,  for  amidst  their  foliage 
appears  a  star  and  rays  and  a  piece  of  drapery 
below  suspends  a  small  medallion  with  U.  S.  in 
a  cypher.  The  idea  is  new  and  the  effect  pleas- 
ing; and  although  they  cannot  be  said  to  be  of 
any  antient  order,  we  must  allow  that  they  have 
an  appearance  of  magnificence.  The  ceiling  is 
plain,  with  only  a  sun  and  thirteen  stars  in  the 
center.  The  marble  which  is  used  in  the  chim- 
neys is  American  and  for  beauty  of  shades  and 
polish  is  equal  to  any  of  its  kind  in  Europe.  The 

84 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

President's  chair  is  at  one  end  of  the  room,  ele- 
vated about  three  feet  from  the  floor,  under  a 
rich  canopy  of  crimson  damask.  The  Arms  of 
the  United  States  are  to  be  placed  over  it.  The 
chairs  of  the  members  are  arranged  semicircu- 
larly,  as  those  in  the  Representatives'  room. 
The  floor  is  covered  with  a  handsome  carpet, 
and  the  windows  are  furnished  with  curtains 
of  crimson  damask.  Besides  these  rooms,  there 
are  several  others,  for  use  and  convenience;  a 
library,  lobbies  and  committee  rooms  above, 
and  guard  rooms  below.  On  one  side  (which  we 
could  not  show  in  the  plate)  is  a  platform  level 
with  the  floor  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  which 
affords  a  convenient  walk  for  the  members,  of 
more  than  two  hundred  feet  long,  and  is  guarded 
by  an  iron  railing. 

We  cannot  close  our  description  without  ob- 
serving that  great  praise  is  due  to  Major  L'En- 
fant,  the  architect,  who  has  surmounted  many 
difficulties,  and  has  so  accommodated  the  ad- 
ditions to  the  old  parts,  and  so  judiciously  al- 
tered what  he  saw  wrong,  that  he  has  produced 
a  building  uniform  and  consistent  throughout, 
and  has  added  to  great  elegance  every  conven- 
ience that  could  be  desired. 

85 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

The  exertion  of  the  workmen  ought  not  to  pass 
unnoticed,  who  effected  so  great  a  work,  in  an 
unfavorable  season,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months. 

PAULUS  HOECK,  JERSEY  CITY* 

"During  the  British  occupancy  of  the  Hoeck 
there  was  a  burying  ground  south  of  Sussex 
Street  and  west  of  Washington  Street.  In  this 
ground  many  of  the  enemy  were  buried,  among 
whom  was  Major  John  Smith.  Connected  with 
his  grave  is  an  interesting  fact.  The  equestrian 
statue  of  George  III,  which  was  set  up  in  1770, 
in  the  centre  of  Bowling  Green,  New  York,  was 
torn  down  on  the  9th  of  July,  1776.  It  is  said 
to  have  contained  four  thousand  pounds  of  lead 
covered  with  gold  leaf.  The  slab  upon  which 
the  statue  was  placed  now  lies  in  the  sidewalk 
in  front  of  Cornelius  Van  Vorst's  residence,  on 
the  south  side  of  Wayne  Street,  near  Jersey 
Avenue.  It  is  a  coarse  marble,  and  is  said  to 
have  been  brought  from  England.  The  holes 
in  which  three  of  the  hoofs  of  the  leaden  charger 
were  fastened  are  yet  to  be  seen.    During  the 

*  From  the  "  History  of  the  County  of  Hudson,  New  Jersey." 
By  Charles  H.  Winfield.   New  York,  1874. 

86 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION 

war  it  was  brought  to  Paulus  Hoeck — when,  by 
whom  or  for  what  purpose  (unless  for  the  pur- 
pose to  which  it  was  afterwards  put)  is  not 
known.  On  Friday  evening,  July  25,  1783, 
Major  John  Smith  stationed  at  Paulus  Hoeck, 
died,  and  was  buried  on  the  following  Sunday 
with  military  honors.*  This  slab  was  placed 
over  his  grave,  with  the  following  inscription 
engraved  upon  it: 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

MAJOR  JOHN  SMITH 
of  the 

XLIInd  or  Royal  Highland  Reg't, 
Who  died  25  July,  1783, 
in  the  48th  Year  of  his  Age, 

This  Stone  is  erected 
By  the  officers  of  that  Reg't 
His 

Bravery,  Generosity  &  Humanity 
During  an  honorable  service 

of  29  Years 
Endeared  him  to  the  Soldiers, 
To  his  Acquaintance  &  Friends. 
When  this  part  of  Jersey  City  was  graded, 
Mr.  Van  Vorst  (Faddy)  took  the  slab  to  his 

*Rivington's  Gazette,  July  30,  1783. 

87 


NEW  YORK  AS  WASHINGTON   KNEW  IT 

house  in  Harismus,  where  from  supporting  the 
charger  of  a  King,  it  became  the  stepping-stone 
of  a  repubHcan.  That  building  was  torn  down 
in  1818,  when  the  stone  was  taken  to  the  resi- 
dence of  his  grandson,  on  the  north-east  corner 
of  Wayne  Street  and  Jersey  Avenue.  It  there 
became  a  step  at  the  kitchen  door.  When  this 
building  was  torn  down  in  (about)  1854,  the 
slab  was  placed  where  it  now  is.  In  1828  an 
English  gentleman  offered  Mr.  Van  Vorst  five 
hundred  dollars  for  it." 

On  October  6,  1874 — as  the  writer  is  in- 
formed by  Mr.  Robert  H.  Kelby,  Librarian  of 
the  New  York  Historical  Society — the  slab  was 
presented  by  the  Hon.  Cornelius  Van  Vorst, 
through  the  Hon.  Charles  H.  Winfield,  to  the 
Society,  and  subsequently  was  removed  to  its 
rooms  in  Second  Avenue,  where,  in  the  hallway 
of  that  Institution,  it  may  now  be  seen  and 
examined  by  the  curious  in  such  matters. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    ARRANGEMENT   OF   THE  PRIN- 
CIPAL   HISTORICAL    EVENTS  REFERRED 
TO  IN  THIS  BOOK 


1770  January  i8th,  Battle  of  Golden  Hill 
(John  Street,  New  York),  first  blood 
shed  in  defence  of  the  rights  of  America. 

1770  August  i6th.  Equestrian  Statue  of 
George  III  erected  in  Bowling  Green. 

1772  New  York  Society  Library  chartered  by 
Governor  Tryon. 

1774  Committee  of  Fifty  Citizens  appointed, 
Isaac  Low,  Chairman. 

1776  Richmond  Hill  house  occupied  as  head- 
quarters by  General  Washington. 

1776  July  9th,  statue  of  George  HI  in  Bowl- 
ing Green  demolished. 

1776  September  21st,  the  great  fire.  493 
houses  destroyed.  Trinity  Church,  Rec- 
tory and  Charity  School  burned. 

1778  FIRE  in  which  about  fifty  houses  were 
consumed. 

1783  March  12th,  preliminary  articles  of  peace 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  signed  at  Paris. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

April  5th,  PEACE  PROCLAMATION  received 
at  New  York. 

September  3d,  definitive  treaty  of  peace 
signed  at  Paris  by  the  British  Commis- 
sioner and  the  Envoys  from  the  United 
States. 

November  25th,   evacuation  of  the 
City  of  New  York  by  the  British  troops, 
and  entry  of  General  Washington. 
December  4th,  Washington's  farewell  to 
his  officers  at  Fraunces'  tavern. 
December  1 1  th,  appointed  by  Congress 
as  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving. 
January  21st,  Legislature  of  the  State 
meets  in  New  York. 

June  9th,  Bank  of  New  York  begins 
business  in  the  Walton  House. 
"The    Daily   Advertiser"  established. 
The  FIRST  daily  newspaper  published  in 
New  York. 

FIRST  NEW  YORK  DIRECTORY  isSUed. 

Brissot  de  Marville,  French  author, 
editor,  and  publicist,  visits  this  country. 
March  4th,  day  appointed  for  meeting  of 
the  Congress. 

90 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1789  April  1 2th,  Washington  notified  of  his 
election  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States. 

1789    April  14th,  leaves  Mount  Vernon. 

1789    April  23d,  arrives  at  New  York. 

1789  April  30th,  INAUGURATION  of  Washing- 
ton in  the  balcony  of  Federal  Hall. 

1789  May  7th,  Inaugural  Ball  given  to  Wash- 
ington by  the  subscribers  of  the  Dancing 
Assembly. 

1789  May  27th,  Mrs.  Washington  with  her 
two  grand-children  arrive  at  New  York. 

1789  John  Adams,  Vice-President,  occupies 
the  Richmond  Hill  house. 

1789  Franklin  House  in  Cherry  Street  occu- 

1790  pied  as  a  residence  by  President  Wash- 
ington. 

1789  October.  Washington  makes  a  tour  of 
the  Eastern  States. 

1790  December.  Congress  of  the  United 
States  removes  to  Philadelphia. 

1 80 1  Seat  of  Government  removed  to  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

1804  July  iith,  duel  between  Hamilton  and 
Burr. 

1856     Franklin  House  demolished. 


91 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

1865     ^3iid  Fire  Department  established. 
1902     November  iith,  Chamber  of  Commerce 

takes  possession  of  its  new  building  in 

Liberty  Street. 


